GWENT workers are set to stage protests outside steel plants across the country to call for the resignation of the chairman of steel giant Corus, it was announced yesterday. Union officials agreed the plan as part of a campaign to persuade Sir Brian Moffat to stand down.

Corus workers are braced for a fresh round of job cuts, which could be as high as 4,000, after the steelmaker announced heavy losses last week.

These fresh fears follow last year's decision by Corus to axe 1,540 jobs in Llanwern and the cutting of 780 jobs in Ebbw Vale which ended more than 200 years of steelmaking in the town.

Michael Leahy, general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation, said management had failed workers and shareholders.

"It is clear that the company needs to improve its performance. For that to happen employees and management have to be pulling in the same direction, and this can only be built on the foundations of true consultation and partnership. Sir Brian Moffat has been an obstacle to achieving this in the past."

Paul Gibbon, 40, a steelworker from Stelvio Park Drive, Gaer, Newport, who left Llanwern 18 months ago to work at the Port Talbot plant, said yesterday: "I think I would join the protest because it stinks what they've done to us.

"We've heard rumours that it's Redcar that is going to go. "But I think if Port Talbot goes then so will Llanwern and vice versa.

"It's like a nightmare that is starting all over again and I've got two kids - aged 14 and 15 - to look after.

"I can't believe what Sir Brian Moffat has done over the past four years but he still gets his big fat pay cheques while we haven't had a pay rise for two years."

A spokesman for Corus said: "The Corus Board was unanimous in its decision to ask Sir Brian Moffat to stay on as chairman.

"He has agreed to defer his retirement until a successor is found in the coming months. His role is to ensure continuity and stability for the company for the long term." The date of the protest is to be announced.