Sad Day On Teeside

The Indian Tata corporation, has confirmed that 150 years of steel-making in the north-east of England would come to an end on this Friday when the firm's Redcar blast furnace begins shutting down.

Union reps for the 2,300 workers at Redcar insisted that the company "still has a duty to the workforce."

The plant's multi-union works committee chairman Geoff Waterfield, representing the Community, GMB and Unite unions, said the declaration of closure was "a psychological blow for the thousands of workers who had fought so hard over the past year to keep it open."

Pointing out that more than 8,000 more jobs on Teesside depended on the plant, Mr Waterfield insisted that the workers "will continue to fight, because the last thing we want to see is our families suffer."

"I would expect the government at this point to be more bullish, and for Tata to be more open about their final intentions" he added.

The Redcar workers received solidarity from steelworkers at Corus's Scunthorpe plant, where Unite union rep Bill Gray urged ministers to step in.

"We are bitterly disappointed the Labour government is not doing more to save the jobs of our colleagues at Redcar," Mr Gray said.

Local Labour MP Ashok Kumar backed the unions' pressure on the government to step in to support the steelworkers, who will continue to work on winding down the operation over the next three months.

Mr Kumar urged ministers to work with Corus bosses "to keep all options open to exploit this asset, because the plants are only being mothballed and not decommissioned entirely.

"The fight is still on to keep steel-making on Teesside alive," he proclaimed.