{"id":7817,"date":"2016-02-22T17:46:04","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T17:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7817"},"modified":"2016-02-23T12:09:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T12:09:20","slug":"tata-steel-deal-in-the-offing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7817","title":{"rendered":"Tata Steel: deal in the offing?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>As private equity firm Greybull Capital may be set to take control of Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Long Products division in Scunthorpe in April as part of a \u00c2\u0141400m deal to rescue the operation, steel unions have begun negotiating cost saving measures for the takeover to go through.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tata Steel has already imposed a pay freeze on 4,000 of its workers in Scunthorpe for 2016-2017. Quarterly and annual bonus deals that had been negotiated in 1980 are also now being dropped, with profit-related bonuses to replace these from January 1 of this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Pensions, too, may be deferred, meaning that workers may have to work beyond the pensionable age of 55.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite Tata Steel site convenor Martin Foster said that negotiations on any further cost saving measures are currently underway, with more meetings scheduled either this week or next.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe negotiations are very difficult,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Foster said, noting that details are at the moment confidential. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hoping to soon reach an agreement that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be able to put forward to our members for a vote.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Members decide<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn the end,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Foster emphasised, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bit is our members who will decide if the agreement is acceptable.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Foster urged members who may be concerned about the future takeover to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwatch and wait.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are very certain that if Greybull does eventually sign on the dotted line, there will be a good and long future for the Long Products division.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Long Products division employs nearly 5,000 people across Europe and produces steel products such as universal beams, universal columns, parallel flange channels and angles used in construction.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Greybull Capital took over the ailing airline Monarch last year and has since turned it around to begin producing profit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Foster noted that pressure on the government must continue in earnest, for both the future prospects of Scunthorpe as well as steel communities across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo matter what happens with the potential Greybull takeover, long-term future success is still dependent on the UK government stepping in and taking action urgently,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Foster explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe cannot let up in our campaign for the sort of intervention that governments in both Europe and the US have already embraced to support their domestic steel industries.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As steel unions seek to negotiate a deal so that Greybull Capital will step in to invest in the Long Products division, just last week unions and steel bosses joined together in Brussels in a demo to save the steel industry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was the first time bosses have stood side by side with employees to demand action on steel and it truly shows the strength of feeling over what is happening,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer Harish Patel, who attended the march.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned on UNITElive for the latest on the potential Greybull takeover as well as updates on the steel industry.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As private equity firm Greybull Capital may be set to take control of Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Long Products division in Scunthorpe in April as part of a \u00c2\u0141400m deal to rescue the operation, steel unions have begun negotiating cost saving measures for the takeover to go through. &nbsp; Tata Steel has already imposed a pay freeze [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":"As news awaited, Unite insists pressure on govt must go on ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7818,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7817\/revisions\/7818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}