Victims of things beyond our control

Unite member Martin Foster also writes to the Prime Minister on the dire plight of steel workers. He says,

I am a senior trade union official at Tata Steel in Scunthorpe, but I write to you today as a proud steelworker, husband and father.

I write to you at a time when we may well be seeing the end of steelmaking in Scunthorpe after 130 years.

I have worked on the steelworks since leaving school in 1978 and my father and grandmother worked there before me. The steelworks has long been the lifeblood of Scunthorpe, indeed the town has been built around it, but I now fear the worst.

There have been a number of hard times for the Scunthorpe works and the steel industry generally over the years, which have seen the business in Scunthorpe shrink from 26,000 workers to just 4,000, but we have always managed to work our way through and keep it as a successful business, but this time is very different.

We are the victims of things that are beyond our control, such as exchange rates, high energy prices, carbon taxes, cheap Chinese steel imports and high business rates and so on.

These are things we cannot fight on our own. Is it right that Scunthorpe steelworks and the UK steel industry be allowed to die because of something that is not its fault?

Vital

The UK steel industry contributes ÂŁ9.5bn to the UK economy and steel is a vital part of our everyday lives, from the cars we drive, the planes we fly to holiday destinations and the houses and buildings we live and work in, right down to the watch on our wrist and the ballpoint pen in our pocket.

Yet the government sit there and allow this once great industry to wither and die. They have piled billions of tax payer’s money into the banking sector, yet when the steel industry needs help they fob us off with warm words, weak excuses and empty rhetoric.

There is plenty the government can do, if they only had the will to do it, but there are also things that can be done at local government level too, such as a reduction in business rates. This would not solve the problem alone, but it would help to give us a fighting chance at surviving.

If the steelworks in Scunthorpe were to close, then the local council would lose that ÂŁ15m of income that they currently receive in business rates from the steelworks. This would impact on the level of services that they could provide, but more importantly the town itself would be decimated.

Businesses would close, unemployment would rocket and the vibrant town centre would disappear. Scunthorpe would become a shadow of its former self. If anyone doubts this, then just pay a visit to Redcar.

I call upon you all, no I plead with you all, in local and central government, to do something to save this industry, which is such a vital part of our local and national economy, not to mention our everyday lives.

We cannot sit idly by and let this happen, we must fight to save our industry and we must fight to save our town. To sit by and allow this industry to disappear would be criminal.

Please do something quickly, before it’s too late.

Yours very sincerely,

Martin Foster,  steelworker, husband and father.

Martin’s letter appeared in today’s edition of The Mirror (Wednesday October 21).