Anton Hammerl’s family learn he was killed in April during attack when three other journalists were captured Anton Hammerl, an award-winning, British-based photographer who had been missing in Libya since early April, was killed during an incident in which three other journalists were captured, it has been revealed. Hammerl, who had joint South African and Austrian citizenship but lived in Surbiton, Surrey, had cut his teeth covering the township wars in South Africa. “On 5 April 2011, Anton was shot by Gaddafi’s forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert,” Hammerl’s family announced on Thursday. “According to eyewitnesses, his injuries were such that he could not have survived without medical attention.” News of Hammerl’s death was given to his family by Clare Gillis and James Foley, two American reporters who were captured by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in a remote area of eastern Libya and released on Thursday. They had been given suspended sentences of a year in prison for entering Libya illegally. Gillis and Foley said after their release that they, along with Hammerl and the Spanish photographer Manu Brab, arrived at a rebel-held frontline early on 5 April. Almost immediately, the rebels were put to flight by an attack by pro-Gaddafi forces, including two Libyan military trucks which the journalists could see driving towards them. “It all happened in a split second,” Foley told the Global Post . “We thought we were in the crossfire. But, eventually, we realised they were shooting at us. You could see and hear the bullets hitting the ground near us.” Hammerl, who was closest to the pro-Gaddafi forces, dived for cover but was shot in the abdomen. Hearing him cry out, Foley asked: “Are you OK? “No,” was Hammerl’s only reply. “I thought instinctively that we were all going to get killed, so I jumped up to surrender and screamed that we were journalists,” Foley said. He added that the three surviving journalists had struggled with how to communicate the news of Hammerl’s death to his family. “We knew collectively that if we spoke about Hammerl’s death while we were detained, then we would be in greater danger ourselves. But now that we’re free, it’s our moral imperative to tell the story of this great journalist and father,” he said. The news of Hammerl’s death brings to an end weeks of uncertainty for Hammerl’s wife and young family who had heard contradictory reports from the Libyan authorities about what had happened to him, being first informed he was safe and being held and later that there was no news of him. A statement put out by his family read: “From the moment Anton disappeared in Libya we have lived in hope as the Libyan officials assured us that they had Anton. It is intolerably cruel that Gaddafi loyalists have known Anton’s fate all along and chose to cover it up.” South Africa’s foreign minister claimed on Friday that Gaddafi fed South Africa misinformation about Hammerl. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Libya had still not come forward with the truth. “We kept getting reassurance and misinformation throughout,” Nkoana-Mashabane said. Referring to Gaddafi, she said the assurances came “at one stage from himself, yes, to say that they are all alive and that they are well”. Hammerl began his career in photojournalism covering the violence in South Africa and was mentored byKen Oesterbroek, one of the key figures in the Bang Bang Club – a small group of photographers which documented the conflicts. A family friend, Bronwyn Friedlander said: “Anton was a deeply moral and talented human being who did not deserve to die this way. But he died doing what he did best, telling stories with his photographs of the most vulnerable people.” Karel Prinsloo, of the Associated Press, who started his career in photography in South Africa at the same time as Hammerl, also paid tribute to him. “There are people like me who go straight for the news as it happens in front of us, but Anton was a much more thoughtful photographer,” he said. “He wanted to know why things were happening and what it meant to the people involved. He was a thinking man’s photographer.” The chairman of South Africa’s National Press Club, Yusuf Abramjee, told the South African Press Association that Hammerl would be remembered as “an outstanding photographer and a good human being”. News of Hammerl’s fate follows the deaths of Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington, who were killed in a mortar attack on 20 April in Misrata. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Africa Middle East South Africa Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Anton Hammerl’s family learn he was killed in April during attack when three other journalists were captured Anton Hammerl, an award-winning, British-based photographer who had been missing in Libya since early April, was killed during an incident in which three other journalists were captured, it has been revealed. Hammerl, who had joint South African and Austrian citizenship but lived in Surbiton, Surrey, had cut his teeth covering the township wars in South Africa. “On 5 April 2011, Anton was shot by Gaddafi’s forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert,” Hammerl’s family announced on Thursday. “According to eyewitnesses, his injuries were such that he could not have survived without medical attention.” News of Hammerl’s death was given to his family by Clare Gillis and James Foley, two American reporters who were captured by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in a remote area of eastern Libya and released on Thursday. They had been given suspended sentences of a year in prison for entering Libya illegally. Gillis and Foley said after their release that they, along with Hammerl and the Spanish photographer Manu Brab, arrived at a rebel-held frontline early on 5 April. Almost immediately, the rebels were put to flight by an attack by pro-Gaddafi forces, including two Libyan military trucks which the journalists could see driving towards them. “It all happened in a split second,” Foley told the Global Post . “We thought we were in the crossfire. But, eventually, we realised they were shooting at us. You could see and hear the bullets hitting the ground near us.” Hammerl, who was closest to the pro-Gaddafi forces, dived for cover but was shot in the abdomen. Hearing him cry out, Foley asked: “Are you OK? “No,” was Hammerl’s only reply. “I thought instinctively that we were all going to get killed, so I jumped up to surrender and screamed that we were journalists,” Foley said. He added that the three surviving journalists had struggled with how to communicate the news of Hammerl’s death to his family. “We knew collectively that if we spoke about Hammerl’s death while we were detained, then we would be in greater danger ourselves. But now that we’re free, it’s our moral imperative to tell the story of this great journalist and father,” he said. The news of Hammerl’s death brings to an end weeks of uncertainty for Hammerl’s wife and young family who had heard contradictory reports from the Libyan authorities about what had happened to him, being first informed he was safe and being held and later that there was no news of him. A statement put out by his family read: “From the moment Anton disappeared in Libya we have lived in hope as the Libyan officials assured us that they had Anton. It is intolerably cruel that Gaddafi loyalists have known Anton’s fate all along and chose to cover it up.” South Africa’s foreign minister claimed on Friday that Gaddafi fed South Africa misinformation about Hammerl. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Libya had still not come forward with the truth. “We kept getting reassurance and misinformation throughout,” Nkoana-Mashabane said. Referring to Gaddafi, she said the assurances came “at one stage from himself, yes, to say that they are all alive and that they are well”. Hammerl began his career in photojournalism covering the violence in South Africa and was mentored byKen Oesterbroek, one of the key figures in the Bang Bang Club – a small group of photographers which documented the conflicts. A family friend, Bronwyn Friedlander said: “Anton was a deeply moral and talented human being who did not deserve to die this way. But he died doing what he did best, telling stories with his photographs of the most vulnerable people.” Karel Prinsloo, of the Associated Press, who started his career in photography in South Africa at the same time as Hammerl, also paid tribute to him. “There are people like me who go straight for the news as it happens in front of us, but Anton was a much more thoughtful photographer,” he said. “He wanted to know why things were happening and what it meant to the people involved. He was a thinking man’s photographer.” The chairman of South Africa’s National Press Club, Yusuf Abramjee, told the South African Press Association that Hammerl would be remembered as “an outstanding photographer and a good human being”. News of Hammerl’s fate follows the deaths of Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington, who were killed in a mortar attack on 20 April in Misrata. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Africa Middle East South Africa Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Anton Hammerl’s family learn he was killed in April during attack when three other journalists were captured Anton Hammerl, an award-winning, British-based photographer who had been missing in Libya since early April, was killed during an incident in which three other journalists were captured, it has been revealed. Hammerl, who had joint South African and Austrian citizenship but lived in Surbiton, Surrey, had cut his teeth covering the township wars in South Africa. “On 5 April 2011, Anton was shot by Gaddafi’s forces in an extremely remote location in the Libyan desert,” Hammerl’s family announced on Thursday. “According to eyewitnesses, his injuries were such that he could not have survived without medical attention.” News of Hammerl’s death was given to his family by Clare Gillis and James Foley, two American reporters who were captured by forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, in a remote area of eastern Libya and released on Thursday. They had been given suspended sentences of a year in prison for entering Libya illegally. Gillis and Foley said after their release that they, along with Hammerl and the Spanish photographer Manu Brab, arrived at a rebel-held frontline early on 5 April. Almost immediately, the rebels were put to flight by an attack by pro-Gaddafi forces, including two Libyan military trucks which the journalists could see driving towards them. “It all happened in a split second,” Foley told the Global Post . “We thought we were in the crossfire. But, eventually, we realised they were shooting at us. You could see and hear the bullets hitting the ground near us.” Hammerl, who was closest to the pro-Gaddafi forces, dived for cover but was shot in the abdomen. Hearing him cry out, Foley asked: “Are you OK? “No,” was Hammerl’s only reply. “I thought instinctively that we were all going to get killed, so I jumped up to surrender and screamed that we were journalists,” Foley said. He added that the three surviving journalists had struggled with how to communicate the news of Hammerl’s death to his family. “We knew collectively that if we spoke about Hammerl’s death while we were detained, then we would be in greater danger ourselves. But now that we’re free, it’s our moral imperative to tell the story of this great journalist and father,” he said. The news of Hammerl’s death brings to an end weeks of uncertainty for Hammerl’s wife and young family who had heard contradictory reports from the Libyan authorities about what had happened to him, being first informed he was safe and being held and later that there was no news of him. A statement put out by his family read: “From the moment Anton disappeared in Libya we have lived in hope as the Libyan officials assured us that they had Anton. It is intolerably cruel that Gaddafi loyalists have known Anton’s fate all along and chose to cover it up.” South Africa’s foreign minister claimed on Friday that Gaddafi fed South Africa misinformation about Hammerl. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said Libya had still not come forward with the truth. “We kept getting reassurance and misinformation throughout,” Nkoana-Mashabane said. Referring to Gaddafi, she said the assurances came “at one stage from himself, yes, to say that they are all alive and that they are well”. Hammerl began his career in photojournalism covering the violence in South Africa and was mentored byKen Oesterbroek, one of the key figures in the Bang Bang Club – a small group of photographers which documented the conflicts. A family friend, Bronwyn Friedlander said: “Anton was a deeply moral and talented human being who did not deserve to die this way. But he died doing what he did best, telling stories with his photographs of the most vulnerable people.” Karel Prinsloo, of the Associated Press, who started his career in photography in South Africa at the same time as Hammerl, also paid tribute to him. “There are people like me who go straight for the news as it happens in front of us, but Anton was a much more thoughtful photographer,” he said. “He wanted to know why things were happening and what it meant to the people involved. He was a thinking man’s photographer.” The chairman of South Africa’s National Press Club, Yusuf Abramjee, told the South African Press Association that Hammerl would be remembered as “an outstanding photographer and a good human being”. News of Hammerl’s fate follows the deaths of Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington, who were killed in a mortar attack on 20 April in Misrata. Libya Muammar Gaddafi Africa Middle East South Africa Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
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• Actor and MP to be among first to have cases heard • Court told senior NoW exec ordered hacking of Law’s phone Actor Jude Law and Labour MP Chris Bryant are now among the first people who will have their legal action against the News of the World over alleged phone hacking heard by the high court. The court also heard allegations that a senior News of the World executive, who was not named, had ordered private detective Glenn Mulcaire to hack into Jude Law’s phone. News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the News of the World, denied this was the case. The pair are the newest names to be included among five test cases chosen by high court judge Mr Justice Vos, also including former Sky Sports pundit Andy Gray, agent Sky Andrew and interior designer Kelly Hoppen. Sienna Miller, the actor, was due to be among those whose case was heard until she accepted a £100,000 settlement from the newspaper last week . A secondary list of five claimants has also been drawn up in the event that further people drop out. They include comedian Steve Coogan, former footballer Paul Gascoigne, Max Clifford’s former assistant Nicola Phillips, ex-MP George Galloway and Mary-Ellen Field, former adviser to model Elle Macpherson. The judge said the cases would enable him to decide the damages that were properly payable across a range of alleged factual situations, and make it possible for other cases to be resolved without the need for further hearings. He added that the trial would cover the issues of “what was agreed to be done, by whom, for what purpose, over what period and who was involved”. Miller accepted £100,000 compensation from the News of the World earlier this month after it accepted unconditional liability for her phone-hacking claims. The actor was the first celebrity to settle a claim since the tabloid last month admitted hacking the phones of several public figures. It is estimated that £20m has been earmarked for payouts. A number of other high-profile names, including former culture secretary Tessa Jowell, have received apologies from the paper. Since January, when the Metropolitan police reopened its inquiry into claims that staff hacked into the messages of celebrities and politicians, three News of the World journalists have been arrested. Scotland Yard has endured repeated criticism over its handling of the original phone-hacking inquiry, which led to the conviction of News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire in 2007. The cases are expected to be heard later this year or early in 2012. •
Continue reading …British soldiers were unlawfully killed by Afghan police officer, coroner rules
May 20, 2011 No Comment
Five soldiers were killed when the man known as Gulbuddin opened fire at a checkpoint in Helmand province in 2009 Five British soldiers shot dead by a rogue Afghan police officer were unlawfully killed, a coroner has ruled. David Ridley, coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, recorded the verdict at the end of a four-day inquest in Trowbridge. The troops were gunned down without warning by an officer, known only as Gulbuddin, with whom they had been living at an Afghan police checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali, Helmand province. Warrant Officer Class 1 Darren Chant, 40, Sergeant Matthew Telford, 37, and Guardsman Jimmy Major, 18, from the Grenadier Guards, died alongside Corporal Steven Boote, 22, and Corporal Nicholas Webster-Smith, 24, from the Royal Military Police on 3 November 2009. The soldiers were sitting outside in the courtyard of Checkpoint Blue 25 relaxing, having returned earlier that day from a patrol. Their killer, a regular cannabis smoker, walked up to the soldiers and without warning shot them with an automatic AK47 rifle. The inquest heard harrowing evidence from troops who survived the massacre, describing how the Afghan police officer screamed as he fired indiscriminately. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the murders and some reports suggested Gulbuddin had escaped back to them, but military sources have suggested the attack was probably unconnected to the insurgents. No one knows why Gulbuddin opened fire, killing the five and wounding six troops and two Afghan police officers. He fled the checkpoint and was never caught. Some soldiers told the inquest he might have been shot dead in a gun battle immediately after the massacre. Speaking after the inquest, Boote’s mother and girlfriend spoke of their pride in him. . “We want Steven to be remembered because he was a hero and because he volunteered to fight for his country,” Margaret Boote and Emma Murray said in a statement. “He fought very hard to get a place on the team in Afghanistan and he was a highly valued and popular member of the Royal Military Police and of the Grenadier Guards Battle Group. “Steven paid the ultimate sacrifice for his country and he was immensely proud of what he was doing. “We are immensely proud of him and we miss him desperately but we know he was committed to the job he was doing.” Military Afghanistan guardian.co.uk
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Alexander Mamut promises to refocus Waterstone’s as local bookseller – and will install Daunt Books founder to run it HMV Group has agreed to sell its Waterstone’s business, which operates through 296 high street stores, to Russian investment billionaire Alexander Mamut in a £53m deal. Mamut said he believed the future success of the chain lay in “an undiluted commitment to books and bookselling” and promised to refocus Waterstone’s as a local community book store. The sale was announced on Friday morning with a trading update confirming a dismal trading performance across HMV’s businesses since the start of the year. Comparable sales within the group’s music and DVD stores fell 15.1% for the 17 weeks to 30 April, while like-for-like sales at Waterstone’s over the same period were down 8.4%. Mamut has said he will install James Daunt, founder of the Daunt Books chain of independent bookshops in London, to run Waterstone’s. Current managing director Dominic Myers will remain within HMV. The new book store boss has promised a “comprehensive review” of the business. In a statement he said: “Mr Mamut’s investment has been inspired and motivated by the opportunity to refocus the core business of bookselling towards a renewed customer responsiveness.” Mamut added: “The opportunity ahead to reposition Waterstone’s as a regional and local community orientated bookseller is an exciting one. The business enjoys a great loyalty from its customers and I believe that there is considerable integrity and value in the brand.” Mamut, who owns 6% of HMV Group, is said to be a friend of Chelsea football club boss Roman Abramovich and was previously an adviser to Boris Yeltsin. For a period he ran MDM-Bank, founded by billionaire Andrey Melnichenko and in 2007 he acquired US blogging site LiveJournal.com. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of $1.2bn (£740m). The sale of Waterstone’s, which employs 4,500 staff, will provide a major boost for HMV chief executive Simon Fox as he continues to seek new borrowing terms from the firm’s banks after dire trading results left the business heading for a breach of its loan covenants. HMV’s lenders are led by Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. He made clear the sale to Mamut would only go through if a new lending agreement could be reached. Proceeds from the disposal are expected to arrive by the need of next month, though HMV’s bank and pension trustees must first give their consent. Elsewhere HMV is pressing ahead with plans to close 40 stores in an effort to pare back its overheads. It is also exploring a possible sale of its Canadian business. “A sale of Waterstone’s to Alexander Mamut provides a good new home for the business,” said Fox. “We expect this deal to enable the group to achieve a reduction in [its] borrowing requirements, and, in turn, focus on plans for transforming the HMV Group into a broad-based entertainment business.” Waterstone’s HMV Booksellers Retail industry Media business Simon Bowers guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …When Ronald Reagan took office many conservative operatives like Norquist thought he was pretty weak, but worked hard to starve the beast of money so that Democratic policies that helped working families would eventually be destroyed. I learned a lot about the history of Conservative politics as I researched our book, Over The Cliff. I watched Lawrence O’Donnell’s segment last night and he did a great job of giving viewers a refresher course that’s so badly needed. I’ll let Digby explain : I don’t know who the Democrats who voted for the Bush tax cuts and are now fighting to save Medicare are, but I have my doubts about the latter. I think those who voted for the Bush tax cuts are either standard corporate lackeys or political hacks who don’t care one way or the other about government programs, they just wear the blue jersey because it’s convenient. At this point we have to count on sheer political opportunism to make the Democrats fight to save Medicare — Ryan handed them a potent weapon if they choose to use it. But the rest of O’Donnell’s piece is correct and it’s worth listening to his recitation of the historical moments leading up to this to understand exactly how their plan worked. These deficits grew because the Republicans and their Democratic enablers cut taxes and destroyed the economy. Now they finally have their moment to enact their long sought spending cuts. Making Democrats do their dirty work for them is just frosting on the cake. I don’t think taxes have to be off the table. Bush Sr raised them in 1990 and Bill Clinton raised them in 1993. But it’s hard and it will take a piece of political hide out of the President and congress that does it. I had expected that the newly elected Democratic president with his historic mandate and Democratic congress would have immediately taken action to ensure that the tax cuts for the wealthy under Bush would expire. That could have been fairly easily done by extending the middle class tax cuts under the Stimulus Plan. (It didn’t happen, I suspect, because there were delusions of a Grand Bargain.) At any rate, he’s right that the current problem is the result of 30 years of relentless, demagogic, anti-tax rhetoric. You can call them crazy if you want but this has to be one of the most successful, long term conservative movement projects in history. Of course, head anti-tax activist Grover Norquist is the guy who greatly admired Lenin’s tactics , ( as did the CATO and Heritage institutes ) so they understood exactly what it was going to take. No matter how many times you tell Democrats about this Conservative strategy they for the most part look at you and give you a blank stare. It’s taken the Conservative movement over fifty years to enact their plans like starving the beast and it also needed a massive media machine to do it too. (Hint, hint, Fox News.) Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed were considered the Tea Party of the eighties and now what they believe is Conservative dogma of today. When will the Democratic Party finally understand this?
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Reuters slanted towards the critics of McDonald's in a Thursday report about a petition calling on the fast food giant to retire mascot Ronald McDonald and to give up its signature Happy Meal for kids. Correspondent Debra Sherman even went so far to spotlight how the CEO of a medical company which produces ” cholesterol-lowering statins and… heart stents ” sits on the board of McDonald's. Sherman hinted at the tone from the outset with the lede of her article, ” McDonald's stockholders reject obesity proposal ,” noting how “McDonald's Corp spurned calls to assess the impact of its food on childhood obesity, and said its trademark clown Ronald McDonald would be hawking Happy Meals to kids for years to come .” The Reuters correspondent followed this by concentrating all of her quotes from the McDonald's CEO: ” This is about choice and we believe in the democratic process ,” Chief Executive Jim Skinner told a packed room at its shareholders' meeting, to an enthusiastic wave of applause. ” This is about the personal and individual right to choose .”…” Ronald McDonald is an ambassador to McDonald's and he is an ambassador for good. Ronald McDonald is going nowhere ,” Skinner said firmly, prompting more cheers from shareholders. Sherman devoted seven out of eight of the following paragraphs to McDonald's critics, their campaign , and to the childhood obesity issue. The reporter only named one out of the many critics she cited during the remainder of her article: Among the dissenters at the meeting was Dr. Donald Zeigler, director of Prevention and Health Lifestyles at the American Medical Association, who asked when the burger chain will stop marketing to children using Ronald McDonald . Zeigler…was one of 550 healthcare professionals who had signed an open letter to McDonald's pleading that it “stop making the next generation sick.” On Tuesday, a watchdog group placed ads in newspapers across the country calling for McDonald's to stop marketing to children through the clown, toy giveaways and other tactics . Some 17 percent of children and adolescents are obese, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Being overweight during childhood raises the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, hypertension and a host of other diseases. McDonald's has been a lightning rod for criticism for years over its marketing tactics and sales of Happy Meals for children that include toys as inducements . McDonald's allows parents to swap milk or juice for soda in its Happy Meals. It also offers sliced apples with caramel sauce and chicken nuggets as alternatives to french fries and hamburgers. The restaurant chain has added healthier options to its menu , including salads and oatmeal, but critics argue there is still too much fat, salt and sugar in its meals. Even the oatmeal, one critic noted, contains about as much sugar as a Snickers candy bar . The reporter concluded her article by hinting that McDonald's was profiting off the obesity of both children and adults: …McDonald's strategy…has resulted in hefty sales and earnings for shareholders. McDonald's shares have gained nearly 12 percent in the last four months and rallied to a record high of $82.63 on Thursday . But as experts point out, obese children often grow into obese adults, overburdening the entire healthcare system . Ironically, Miles White, chairman and chief executive of diversified healthcare company Abbott Laboratories, has been a director of the McDonald's board since 2009 . Abbott makes a broad range of drugs, including cholesterol-lowering statins, and medical devices, such as heart stents used on patients with clogged arteries . [H/t: Heritage Foundation employee Bethany Murphy . The author worked for Heritage from 2003-2006.]
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Government talk of economic recovery was undermined on Friday when the country’s largest steel maker announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs in Yorkshire and Teesside. Tata Steel, which bought the Corus business in 2007, blamed a continued slump in demand from the construction sector but also new climate change legislation for its decision. “We are aware that our employees and their families will experience a very unsettling few months as a result of this announcement. We will do everything we can to provide them with support and assistance,” said Karl-Ulrich Köhler, chief executive of Tata Steel’s European operations. “The continuing weakness in market conditions is one of the main reasons why we are setting out on this difficult course of action. Another is the regulatory outlook. EU carbon legislation threatens to impose huge additional costs on the steel industry. Besides, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the level of further unilateral carbon cost rises that the UK government is planning,” he added. The Indian firm said it was proposing to close or mothball part of its Scunthorpe plant, putting at risk 1,200 jobs, as well as cutting 300 jobs at its sites on Teesside. But it also said it would invest £400m in its “Long Products” business over the next five years and hoped to bring a turnaround to the hard-pressed side of the business that it had achieved inside the speciality steel division. The news from the steel industry follows a roll call of redundancies from a swath of other industrial and retail employers with mobile phone company Nokia cutting 700 UK jobs, pharma group Novartis unveiling 550 redundancies and Mothercare closing 110 stores. There has also been bad news from drugs maker Pfizer with 2,400 jobs under threat in Kent and Focus DIY, which went into administration this month. But the steel industry has been doing better with a Thai company, SSI, announcing plans late last year to restart operations at a mothballed plant at Redcar. Unions said the latest cuts amounted to 8% of Tata’s UK workforce and were a “devastating blow” to the regions affected as the steel industry played a major role there. “Today’s announcement highlights just how fragile our economy is and the coalition Government should not be so quick to start talking about growth and recovery,” said Unite’s national officer, Paul Reuter. “Union representatives are currently working with Tata to mitigate the impact of the cuts. Unite has already demanded that there should be no compulsory redundancies and we believe that this should be possible to achieve. Business secretary Vince Cable admitted he was “very disappointed” at the Tata move adding: “This will be a worrying time for workers at Scunthorpe in particular, and also in Teesside.” Job losses Tata Construction industry Carbon emissions Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Government talk of economic recovery was undermined on Friday when the country’s largest steel maker announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs in Yorkshire and Teesside. Tata Steel, which bought the Corus business in 2007, blamed a continued slump in demand from the construction sector but also new climate change legislation for its decision. “We are aware that our employees and their families will experience a very unsettling few months as a result of this announcement. We will do everything we can to provide them with support and assistance,” said Karl-Ulrich Köhler, chief executive of Tata Steel’s European operations. “The continuing weakness in market conditions is one of the main reasons why we are setting out on this difficult course of action. Another is the regulatory outlook. EU carbon legislation threatens to impose huge additional costs on the steel industry. Besides, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about the level of further unilateral carbon cost rises that the UK government is planning,” he added. The Indian firm said it was proposing to close or mothball part of its Scunthorpe plant, putting at risk 1,200 jobs, as well as cutting 300 jobs at its sites on Teesside. But it also said it would invest £400m in its “Long Products” business over the next five years and hoped to bring a turnaround to the hard-pressed side of the business that it had achieved inside the speciality steel division. The news from the steel industry follows a roll call of redundancies from a swath of other industrial and retail employers with mobile phone company Nokia cutting 700 UK jobs, pharma group Novartis unveiling 550 redundancies and Mothercare closing 110 stores. There has also been bad news from drugs maker Pfizer with 2,400 jobs under threat in Kent and Focus DIY, which went into administration this month. But the steel industry has been doing better with a Thai company, SSI, announcing plans late last year to restart operations at a mothballed plant at Redcar. Unions said the latest cuts amounted to 8% of Tata’s UK workforce and were a “devastating blow” to the regions affected as the steel industry played a major role there. “Today’s announcement highlights just how fragile our economy is and the coalition Government should not be so quick to start talking about growth and recovery,” said Unite’s national officer, Paul Reuter. “Union representatives are currently working with Tata to mitigate the impact of the cuts. Unite has already demanded that there should be no compulsory redundancies and we believe that this should be possible to achieve. Business secretary Vince Cable admitted he was “very disappointed” at the Tata move adding: “This will be a worrying time for workers at Scunthorpe in particular, and also in Teesside.” Job losses Tata Construction industry Carbon emissions Terry Macalister guardian.co.uk
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