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posted by janrinok on Thursday February 16 2017, @09:40PM   Printer-friendly
from the difficult-choice dept.

Tata Steel UK workers have voted in favour of proposals to turn around the struggling business, potentially saving 8,000 jobs but also leading to cuts to their pension benefits.

Workers from the Community, Unite, and GMB unions all backed the plan in separate ballots. Approximately three-quarters of votes supported the proposals, which involve saving the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales.

[...] Tata Steel had proposed saving 8,000 jobs in its UK business and the Port Talbot steelworks by investing £1bn in modernising its operations over the next 10 years.

This investment depends on spinning off the pension fund into a separate entity and replacing the final salary pension scheme with a less generous contribution scheme.

The existing scheme – the British Steel pension scheme (BSPS) – could enter the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) as part of the arrangement, which would result in a 10% cut to members' benefits. For this to occur Tata Steel must convince the Pensions Regulator that its UK business is on the brink of insolvency and is likely to have to pump hundreds of millions of cash into the scheme.

[...] The jobs have been at risk since last March when Tata Steel announced it was putting its UK business up for sale amid losses of more than £1m a day. The decision sparked a political crisis as the government scrambled to secure the future of the Port Talbot plant. Port Talbot is one of only two sites in Britain that makes steel in blast furnaces.

The government welcomed the result of the vote. A spokesperson said: [...]

"It is testament to the commitment of its workforce that they are willing to work so constructively with the owners to secure the future of the plant. The government will play its role in supporting the steel industry to help deliver a sustainable future."

Source: The Guardian


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:33PM (#467993)

    So the day is saved. The company is now in stable financial grounds, so the executive team can give themselves their large annual bonuses. They did save the company after all.

    And then come 5 years from now, when they face the next financial crunch, well, they can always re-negotiate with the workers. If the workers don't compromise more then, the company will go bankrupt due to the non-compromising worker union. Never mind that those laid-off workers won't have the pensions they gave up in 2017, too.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by srobert on Friday February 17 2017, @12:07AM

      by srobert (4803) on Friday February 17 2017, @12:07AM (#468017)

      How do I mark "Insightful" 10,000 times.

      • (Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday February 17 2017, @01:06AM

        by Gaaark (41) on Friday February 17 2017, @01:06AM (#468029) Journal

        Get a botnet!

        --
        --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
    • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday February 17 2017, @04:27AM

      by davester666 (155) on Friday February 17 2017, @04:27AM (#468081)

      Yes, probably something along the lines of "we need the money in the pension fund to pay out our bonuses this year. we promise to top it up in the future, when the money is to be disbursed to you as a pension".

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by varsix on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:33PM

    by varsix (5867) on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:33PM (#467994)

    Give it 5 years and they'll take those jobs anyway. And they'll have the added bonus of having to pay less in pensions!

    • (Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:59PM (#468001)

      Give it 5 years and they'll take those jobs anyway.

      Well, the steel workers did just say, "Tata for now!"

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @11:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @11:02PM (#468003)

    Mort Zuckerman's ass-kissing New York Daily News ran with the headline
    The workers win one at Momentive [nydailynews.com]

    As the company's business deals with exotic chemicals, cuts to healthcare are NOT a "win" for workers.

    The World Socialist Web Site, which actually represents The Working Class, said
    Backed by Democrats, union pushes sellout deal to end Momentive strike [wsws.org]

    As the strike of 700 workers at Momentive Performance Materials, a specialized chemical plant in Waterford, New York, entered its fourth month, a tentative contract was reached [February 8] between the company and International Union of Electrical Workers-Communications Workers of America (IUE-CWA) union Locals 81359 and 81380.

    The final negotiations were reportedly conducted with the direct intervention of aides to New York's Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. Over the last few weeks, Democratic politicians, including the governor, both US senators and the state's comptroller put on a full court press to force another concessions-filled contract onto the strikers.

    [...]The Times Union reports the agreement includes pay increases of 2 percent per year over the next two years and maintains the company's matching payment to the employees' retirement fund. The offer also includes a $2,000 signing bonus to exploit the economic difficulties of strikers.

    These meager increases are more than made up by reductions in health insurance coverage and vacation accruals. In addition, the company will terminate health and life insurance benefits for retirees. These last two are especially egregious given that Momentive workers are affected by long-term exposure to toxic chemicals, which impact their health and longevity.

    The pay increases are an insult to the workers, barely covering current inflation and doing nothing to make up for past losses. Momentive workers had suffered severe cuts in wages and benefits under contracts negotiated by the union in 2010 and 2013. These attacks were undertaken by a group of asset-stripping hedge funds, which purchased what became Momentive from General Electric in 2006. To finance the purchase, Apollo Global Management borrowed $3.8 billion, which it now must pay back by extracting super-profits from its workforce.

    Momentive strikers forced to take pay and health cuts as US owner throws a multi-million-dollar party [wsws.org]

    IUE-CWA Local 81359 also agreed to send workers back without some 40 workers who were fired for alleged picket line misconduct and vandalism.

    The union had initially opposed any agreement without amnesty, worried about the reaction of workers determined not to go back to work without their framed-up brothers. That changed after the intervention of Governor Andrew Cuomo. The IUE-CWA has abandoned these workers to a supposedly neutral arbiter who will decide their fates on a case-by-case basis. Roughly two dozen scabs have been permanently hired to replace the fired workers.

    [...]The CWA is fresh from selling out last year's strike by 39,000 Verizon workers and forcing 20,000 AT&T Mobility wireless workers to stay on the job after their contract expired last week, despite demands for sweeping concessions and a 93 percent vote by workers to authorize a strike.

    The New York News (dot press), an operation so new that it doesn't yet have an /about-us page, ran with the headline
    Momentive strike ends, but hard feelings persist [newyorknews.press]

    Employees walked off the job on Nov. 2 to protest proposed healthcare and retirement cuts. Union members said they had already made concessions in each of the past two three-year deals.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Appalbarry on Friday February 17 2017, @02:05AM

    by Appalbarry (66) on Friday February 17 2017, @02:05AM (#468041) Journal

    Not mentioned in the summary, or the article, is the fact that the senior executives and bosses also accepted pay and pension cuts of...

    Ha! Ha! Had you going there for a minute didn't I?!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @03:24AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @03:24AM (#468065)

      Dang, you've got me.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @07:55AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 17 2017, @07:55AM (#468128)

    The scariest line in the whole piece: "The government welcomed the result of the vote."

    When you have a govt like that, who needs foreign enemies?

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by rleigh on Friday February 17 2017, @08:20AM

      by rleigh (4887) on Friday February 17 2017, @08:20AM (#468134) Homepage

      Well, it was the government that allowed the sale of British Steel to a foreign company in the first place, which was to me somewhat unbelievable given that steel production is a strategic national asset. As the time I thought it was only a matter of time before the new owners found some excuse to asset strip and shut it down; after all, they would probably prefer to sell us their steel, so buying and shutting down the competition would make sense to them. It's not like that hasn't happened before.

      • (Score: 2) by jcross on Friday February 17 2017, @05:44PM

        by jcross (4009) on Friday February 17 2017, @05:44PM (#468271)

        Just think about it as the Indians getting their revenge. A little on the late side, to be sure, but it's hard to call it unjustified.