Union representatives will meet Arrium administrators KordaMentha today, with administrators wanting Whyalla steelworks workers to accept a 15 per cent pay reduction.
AAP reports that Australian Workers Union branch secretary Peter Lamps said the workers had already made sacrifices. Discussions were continuing.
“I would suspect when you start getting closer to that bedrock, negotiations will become a lot more tougher,” Lamps told ABC Radio this morning.
KordaMentha recently said that it had stripped $300 million in annual costs out of the plant.
The survival of the Whyalla steelworks featured in the election campaign, with the Coalition pledging a loan of nearly $50 million to Arrium and the opposition pledging $100 million in support.
The steelworks’ closure would cost an estimated 40 per cent of Whyalla’s jobs.