Rallying call in battle for steel jobs

Business leaders from across the region will gather on Teesside in an emergency meeting called by the North-East Chamber of Commerce.

At the meeting, they will be asked to support the chamber's campaign to persuade debt-laden steel company Corus not to turn its back on the region.

The move is backed by The Northern Echo which, under its Working for a Future campaign banner, has fought to stop the steady erosion of the North-East's flagship industries, which has cost massive job losses and devastated local communities.

Were Corus to close its operations on Teesside, it would be one of the most devastating losses ever to hit the region. The NECC campaign seeks to make the Anglo-Dutch company aware of that fact.

Corus has struggled to be competitive in a difficult international market, which has seen it rack up large annual losses of £412m on top of existing £1.2bn debt.

Its attempts to clear a chunk of that debt were thwarted last week when a Dutch court backed a decision by Corus Netherlands' supervisory board to block the sale of aluminium works which would have raised more than £500m.

Alarm bells had started to ring even before the double dose of bad news when Corus released a statement saying the company may have to "concentrate operations on fewer sites".

Rob McMullen, the chamber's area manager for Teesside, said a meeting had been called for this afternoon at the South Tees Business Centre, at South Bank.

He said: "When something like this happens people feel insecure. It's not just businesses, many of whom rely on Corus, but the whole community.

"The entire North-East, not only the Tees Valley, could be badly affected.

"We estimate that, aside from the people directly affected, a further six or seven thousand people could lose their jobs.

"This meeting will get the ball rolling. What we want to do is move away from the emotional side of this and come up with a very strong business case to present to Corus as to why they should stay here."