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21 August, 2006
In a meeting with French building materials company Imerys last week, British trade union Transport & General Workers’ Union (TGWU) asked the company to reconsider its plans to cut 800 jobs by the beginning of 2008 in Cornwall, Devon, and Lee Moor in the country’s South West.
TGWU said the job cuts, which would bring economic devastation to the region, are “totally unjustified” and said the company must give serious consideration to counter proposals put forward at the 15 August meeting.
“The company is in a strong position to have a bright future in Cornwall, and everything should be done to persuade them to stay,” said TGWU National Secretary Jennie Formby. “(Imerys has) a hardworking, long-serving workforce who deserve better than being dismissed with massive job cuts and a redundancy offer that will in no way compensate for their lost employment.”
Added Malcolm Mellow, TGWU Convenor at Imerys in the South West: “Members have been rocked by the news that they will lose their jobs after devoting years of loyal service to Imerys. The workforce and their families deserve better.”
Imerys cut some jobs in the region in 2004, but promised then that the remaining 800 jobs would be secure. That pledge was breached early in July 2006 when a proposed restructuring plan surfaced saying the vast majority of jobs in kaolin mining and processing at former English China Clay operations would be lost, and the work transferred to Brazil. Imerys bought English China Clay in 1999.
The ICEM is working with affiliate TGWU, as well as with UK affiliated trade union Amicus, which represents a smaller number of Imerys workers in the South West, to preserve the jobs and the region’s economic viability.