UNION bosses have welcomed the steps taken by Bluestar Fibres to support the workers who face losing their jobs at the Grimsby plant.
Following a meeting with company management yesterday, Unite's regional officer Ian Wood said he had been assured that the firm was doing all it could to cushion the blow of the potential 175 redundancies which were announced last month.
As reported, staff have entered a 45-day consultation after Bluestar Fibres said it was considering stopping productions of its carbon fibre precursor product at the Moody Lane site.
Mr Wood revealed that the company had already asked the Jobcentre Plus to come in and help those affected to find alternative employment.
He added that Unite's education department would be contacting the company early next week to offer assistance to its employees.
Speaking to the Grimsby Telegraph after what he described as "meaningful and productive" talks, Mr Wood said: "It was a very good meeting. It is obvious to me that the company wants to work closely with Unite to try to mitigate the circumstances and provide employees with an overall decent package."
Although he said he could not give precise details of the package being offered to workers, he said it included help to equip them with new skills, assistance with CVs and interviews, and a redundancy payment.
He added that a further meeting would be taking place with the company in the week commencing Monday, May 13.
"The talks have been meaningful and productive but at this moment we can't really finalise anything. The company is going to meet with us in a fortnight's time when they will have a clearer view on the timeline and plan going forward."
He added: "I am quite pleased with the progress that the company has made. They already contacted the Job Centre and we will be getting our education department to contact the company early next week so that we can work together as a unit to assist in supporting the employees.
"They have also contacted other companies in the same sector and other sectors to see if there are any vacancies, and they are going to put job adverts up in the employees' support centre, which they have set up on site."
Mr Wood added that 31 members of staff in the absorbent products side of the business had now transferred to a different company, Technical Absorbents.
"They have transferred and Unite's view is that we are pleased that those 31 employees' jobs are safe. They are not part of this redundancy consultation and we have to now concentrate on the remaining employees."
Bluestar Fibres said it would be making no further comment on the consultation at this stage.
ON THE WEB: Read about the history of Bluestar Fibres at www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk
