Axing of “Gold Standard” Corus jobs at Trostre push South West Wales economy to the precipice

18 April 2008

Today’s announcement by Corus that they are axing almost 300 jobs at Trostre in South Wales will be devastating to the local economy and would find it very hard to withstand such a blow warns Andy Richard’s, Unite Regional Secretary.

Andy Richard’s Unite Regional Secretary for Wales said: “The manufacturing jobs at Trostre are the ‘Gold Standard’ in terms of pay and terms and conditions. Quick on the heels of 185 quality job cuts at 3M just down the road, 190 jobs at Kimball Electronics and a further 70 jobs cut through the closure of Avon Inflatable’s in Llanelli, our prediction of a manufacturing meltdown earlier in the week is now a stark reality.

"Politicians were lining up to laud the Amazon announcement earlier in the week, but these two hammer blows will bury the myth that the Welsh economy will flourish by job creation in the service sector.”

Unite the union is concerned that the price we are paying for the continuing shift from manufacturing employment to service sector is the erosion of average pay rates and the associated benefits such as quality pension schemes which are not measured in average earnings statistics.

Mr Richard’s continued: “The situation in the manufacturing sector in Wales is now so serious that it will be impossible for politicians to bury their heads in the sand any longer. Our members do not want sympathetic words and the promise of re-training; they demand action to protect their jobs from being the easy target for unscrupulous multinationals. Our members at Trostre will receive the full backing of unite as they fight to save their jobs and the well being of their communities.”

Unite also criticised the business case for the cuts at Trostre, a plant that has continually delivered on all its production targets.

“There is no industrial or economic case behind cutting capacity at Trostre whilst increasing target capacity at Ijmuiden in Holland. Ijmuiden has never delivered 900,000 tonnes of output over a year. Corus are gambling with delivering unrealistic output in Holland at the expense of our members jobs here in Wales,” Said Mr Richards.