Llanwern is shedding 1,340 workers in the biggest cut

The sprawling Gwent works' 780 employees will be out of a job in July when the plant shuts under Corus plans to shed 6,050 staff around the UK.

In February 2001, the Anglo-Dutch company - formerly British Steel - said it would lay off 3,000 at four sites around Wales in a move designed to slash costs in the face of cheap foreign competition.

The Welsh Assembly is working with employment agencies to develop a �76m re-training package, including a �15m commercial rail link to Cardiff for Ebbw Vale.

Dutch tempting

But that is not enough to keep some desperate workers, who also saw their plant's steel mills shut in the 1980s and are keen to keep using the skills they honed decades ago.

IJmuiden facts

Population - 58,8000 (1991) Climate - hot summers, mild or freezing winters Industry - fishing, seaport, steel Location - west coast, 16 miles from Amsterdam Unemployed - 6.9%

As the US imposes potentially damaging import tariffs on steel from Europe, Corus is tempting Welsh workers to join its 10,000 workers at the 16sqkm IJmuiden facility - 16 miles and 30 minutes down the Noordzee canal from Amsterdam.

It has offered guaranteed wages, cash incentives, help finding new homes and schools and a crash course in Dutch to uproot to the coastal town.

The excited prospective new recruits have had a look around the plant and have a fortnight to make the decision of a lifetime.

By July, they could find themselves among the harbour town's 58,800 other inhabitants - 500 miles and one time zone away from Wales.

Heartbreaking move

Anthony Phillips, an Ebbw Vale employee of 25 years, has already decided to make the break after visiting with wife Linda on Wednesday.

"It will be heartbreaking, devastating," he said. "But you've got to go where the work is.

"If there were opportunities in Corus and the steel industry elsewhere, obviously I would seriously consider staying, but there is nothing.

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"I still want to work in the steel industry, but my age is against me, so it is a big upheaval for me and my family."

IJmuiden human resources manager Mary Louise Gobell Fontaine is not pulling any punches with the company's generous offer.

"We will help them find houses, school for the kids and will even tell them where the nearest supermarket or doctor is to make it easy to settle in," she said.

Visiting the giant facility and its pretty surrounding suburbs, worker Adrian said he was excited and nervous.

But, he said, he had reservations about whether to raise his seven month old son Jordan as Welsh or Dutch.

Never coming home

Another, Justin Harding, said he would rather take the opportunity of a lifetime than ask "what if?" years from now.

A small Welsh community has already formed around the IJmuiden social scene's 10 recent workforce additions.

One Welsh arrival said the plant was totally different from that back home, but he has settled in.

"You could fit Ebbw Vale inside IJmuiden five times," he said.

"The language is very difficult; we are studying between seven and eight hours each day to learn the language.

"But the people are very friendly."

Neither has the challenge posed by emigrating phased workers' partners.

One wife said she was "never coming home" because Wales had "nothing to offer."