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11 December, 2006
UK ICEM affiliate Amicus denounced French multinational Saint-Gobain’s decision to reduce the number of workers at its Stanton Iron Works plant in Ikeston, Derbyshire. The company announced on 5 December that is was cutting 220 of 400 jobs, beginning in April 2007, citing price increases in scrap steel and high energy costs.
Amicus called the holiday-season announcement “a heavy blow to the workers who face an uncertain few months ahead,” and the union immediately scheduled meetings with management to discuss the need for redundancies and to begin enhanced severance talks.
Saint-Gobain’s announcement said it would retain flange pipe making at Stanton, and keep customer servicing staff based in Derbyshire. But the community loses the production of water pipes, which it has been supplying to the UK’s water-delivery system for decades. The Paris-based company said the work will now be done in France and Germany.
Amicus said that the loss of 220 jobs in Ikeston will lift November’s job-loss totals in the East Midlands to nearly 1,000. Amicus has been campaigning and lobbying the government to introduce better employment laws that protects UK workers and assist more in alternative job placements.
Amicus has also been calling for a statutory entitlement to be established that provides workers with a skills and training agenda, as well as for a statutory employer investment fund for training. Amicus says the current tone and level of the debate over jobs and training is “largely irrelevant” next to the tens of thousands of high-skilled and well-paid jobs that have left the UK.
Amicus Assistant General Secretary Tony Burke provided a stark reminder on why the UK was in such a jobs crisis: “Employers have neglected to invest in the skills of their workforces for decades. This under-investment means that we now have to run to stand still in terms of up-skilling.”