steel: adding insult to injury
WORKERS, MAY 2003 ISSUE
Corus, the Anglo-Dutch company formed from privatised British Steel, has added insult to injury for more than 3,000 British steel workers facing redundancy.
No profit has been made since Corus was established in 1999, so no bonuses to the directors have been paid. To remedy this gross inequity, a new bonus scheme based upon 60% of directors' salaries is to be introduced.
Losses of over £2 billion, job losses in excess of 13,000 and a wipe-out of company assets from £4 billion to less than £150 million – all achieved in just over 3 years – are to be rewarded by fatter cheques to the directors.
Steelworkers and their communities facing terminal closure and obliteration are amazed and disgusted. Three senior executives who have left Corus for their inability to deliver (sacked in any manual worker's terms) have picked up near £6.5 million in pensions and nearly £3 million in cash to go.