Engineering news
Unions representing workers at Tata Steel are to meet next week to co-ordinate industrial action in a row over pensions.
Members of Community, the GMB and Ucatt have voted in favour of strikes in protest at the closure of the final salary pension scheme.
Community said after a meeting yesterday it had taken another step towards the first national industrial action in the steel industry for 35 years.
General secretary Roy Rickhuss said: "There is a clear momentum following our massive vote for strike action. The discussion was about practicalities and principles for the action we will be taking in the coming weeks.
"Strike action is firmly on the agenda. In the next few days we will be consulting through our network of reps on the full range of industrial action plans and the timing of our action.
"We have heard nothing new from Tata since our ballot result was announced."
MPs on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Steel walked out of a meeting with Tata Steel executives in Westminster, saying company representatives were unable to answer their questions or address concerns over the dispute.
Tom Blenkinsop, who chairs the group, said: "The pensions dispute is a matter of such serious concern to our constituents that we expected a full discussion about the issues and principles at stake.
"It was clear during the meeting that only the chief executive of Tata Steel could provide the answers to our questions but he only sent his spokespeople.
"We felt there was no point continuing the dialogue today and we've demanded that Karl Koehler attends in person, so that we can hear first-hand how the company has found itself on the brink of the first national steel dispute for 35 years and what he intends to do to find a resolution to this situation."
A Tata Steel spokesman said: "Regrettably, MPs from steel constituencies decided not to meet us at a Westminster meeting which they had invited us to.
"It meant we were prevented from explaining how we are trying to develop an affordable and sustainable pension scheme for employees.
"Everyone agrees that change is needed to resolve the substantial challenges facing the pension scheme which has a huge shortfall of up to £2 billion.
"We have always said we are open to talks and further negotiations with the trade unions and that continues to be the case. We are putting in every effort to reach a fair and balanced way forward."
As of December 2014, the British Steel Pension Scheme had 143,000 members, with 17,004 making up employee members and 91,264 making up pensioner members. As of November 2014, the assets of the scheme were valued at about £13.6 billion and continue to increase.