Tata to strike

Research staff working for Tata Steel have voted over two to one for strike action in a row over job transfers which could see them lose thousands of pounds a year. The 29 staff at Tata’s Teesside Technology Centre in Middlesbrough are protesting at plans to transfer their jobs to a separate research unit where pay and pensions could be threatened.

Unite is warning that the row could escalate into a nationwide dispute. National Officer Paul Reuter has called for the company to return to the negotiating table before staff set the date for the start of industrial action.

“Our members want to stay employed by Tata’s Teesside Technology Centre” said Paul Reuter. “They do not want to be moved to an arms-length employer where pay and pensions could be under threat.”

Tata’s steel production on Teesside provides high quality steel, mainly for the European building industry. It is used in the construction of schools, hospitals and many of the new high-rise buildings dominating the London skyline.

Teesside researchers are at the cutting edge of advances in industrial applications in the steel industry. This includes advance research into identifying new types of fuel and energy to help create greener and environmentally friendlier processes.

Tata Steel is part of a huge Indian multinational company which moved into British steel production when it bought out Corus in 2007 for just over £6bn. The company’s European steel-making operation has a turnover of £10bn a year with more than half its European workforce based in Britain.

Britain’s steel industry has been hit by a huge increase in lower quality and cheaper steel from China. And the industry has reeled from a European wide slow-down in the construction sector following the banking crisis and the recession it caused.

Its British workforce has been hard-hit with 1,700 job losses in 2009, a further 1,500 job losses in Teesside in 2011 and a further 500 job losses across the north east last year.