Steelworkers from across the country demonstrated outside the annual meeting of Corus today after the steel giant announced a fresh wave of job cuts.

The announcement left a huge question mark over the future of one of its biggest plants.

Workers expressed outrage at the loss of 1,150 jobs, mainly from Stocksbridge, near Rotherham, in an area known locally as Happy Valley.

''It is obviously a very sad place this morning and we will do everything we can to save these jobs,'' said Michael Leahy, general secretary of the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation.

''It is a tragedy for communities where these jobs will be lost and once again we have not been consulted about these job losses.''

The future of the giant plant at Teesside, which employs 2,900, was left in doubt after Corus announced that products from the factory would no longer be needed by the company.

Chairman Sir Brian Moffat, who retires next month, said Teesside will now have to sell its product on the international market if it is to survive.

Workers from Teesside and other factories were given the grim news in a series of briefings this morning ahead of the company's annual general meeting which, ironically, was being held at the London headquarters of the TUC.

Workers demonstrated outside the meeting and urged shareholders to vote against a new bonus scheme for directors.

Keren Bender, who works at the Corus plant in Llanwern, south Wales, said the feeling at the factory was one of ''absolute shock'' that more jobs were being lost.

She said more than 100 posts would be cut from Llanwern, which had lost more than 1,000 jobs since the merger in 1999 of the former British Steel and Dutch firm Hoogovens.

''It is beyond words that the company is still paying bonuses to their executives while jobs are being lost. It is an absolute disgrace.

''We are in absolute shock because we have already suffered so many job losses. We will now probably lose a shift because of these new cuts.''

Mr Leahy said it was ''appalling'' that the new bonus scheme for executives was going ahead, adding: ''This is another example of fat cats looking after themselves and it must be stopped.

''They are already over-paid and we don't see that at a time when British workers have suffered a pay freeze, that they should have an increase in their bonuses.

''The new job losses are the culmination of the abject failure of the board.''

Mr Leahy said he was greatly concerned that the job losses have been announced by Sir Brian, who is just days away from leaving the company.

''It is a grim day for steelworkers,'' he added.

Workers from the Dutch arm of the company joined the British demonstrators today in a show of solidarity.

Jos Duhnhoven, a Dutch union official, said: ''Today's announcement is terrible news and is another example of the wrong strategy of this company, which has already cut too many jobs.

''The strategy has made it a sick company.''

Bob Shannon, a national official of Amicus, said: ''Today's announcement is the dying kick of the old culture in Corus which should be changed immediately by the new management.

''We will fight any compulsory redundancies as well as these outrageous increases in executive bonuses.''

The workers urged shareholders to vote against the new bonus scheme at today's AGM, complaining that payouts will be triggered based on ''personal operating objectives'' which were unclear.

The TUC also called on shareholders to support the unions and said it was hard to see how the scheme could go ahead against a background of job cuts, a staff wage freeze and the continuing threat of redundancies.