New moves to save steel plant jobs

Fresh moves are to be made to save almost 2,000 steel jobs at the Teesside Cast Products site

Fresh moves are to be made to save almost 2,000 jobs at a steel plant.

The Teesside Cast Products site in the North East is facing closure within months after a consortium of four companies pulled out of an agreement to buy most of its output for the next five years.

The Community union, which represents most of the workers at the plant, said it had made a "significant breakthrough" with owners Corus and the consortium to get them back round the table to discuss commercial options it believed could save the plant.

General secretary Michael Leahy said: "It's taken a lot of conversations between Community, the highest levels of Government, Tata (owners of Corus), Corus and the consortium but we finally have agreement that the two parties will sit down to try and find a solution that could save the future of Teesside steelmaking.

"We are pressing for Corus and the consortium to set a date as soon as possible. We do not know if their meeting will be a party or a wake but the most important point is that all sides enter discussions mindful of the thousands of jobs and the community on Teesside that are depending on a deal."