Steel giant Corus axes 15 jobs

Jobs are being axed by steel giant Corus at its Cradley Heath base, it emerged today. The company announced 15 jobs will be cut.

A shocked workforce were told as they prepared to leave for the Bank Holiday break.

Across the country Corus has announced 300 job losses since January, with 200 of those lost at Wolverhampton and Wednesbury.

The latest jobs blow will remove more than a third of the 40-strong workforce at the plate finishing plant which is based in Hayes Lane.

A worker, who asked not to be named, said: "They had already taken the night shift off and put them on a day shift.

"By doing this they can effectively reduce the workforce from three shifts to two. It's going to be a thoroughly miserable Bank Holiday now."

Two of the jobs are going from the office, one driver's job and 12 will be lost from the shop floor. Staff were called into a meeting at 12.20pm yesterday just before the Bank Holiday break.

Corus spokesman Bob Fenton said: "We announced at the start of the year that we were looking at a number of redundancies and we said at the time that some of those would be announced later."