A ‘good time to lose your job’

As the UK steel industry teeters on the brink of collapse – devastating entire communities after more than 5,000 jobs have been shed in the last month alone – former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said today (October 26) that it was a “good time” to lose your job.

“[Steel job losses are] very painful for the people who suffer but, on the other hand, if you are going to lose your job this is probably as good a time, because the number of new jobs in the economy today is one of the most exciting features of this economy compared with many others,” Heseltine told Sky News today.

Rage

Steelworkers sacked from the SSI plant in Redcar reacted with rage to Heseltine’s comments.

One steelworker who had worked at the Redcar plant for more than three decades told the Mirror, “I think the remarks made by Mr Heseltine are disgraceful, but they do not really surprise me.

“The Tories’ reaction has been a joke.”

Another SSI worker who has lost his job pointed out how the closure of the plant had had a ripple effect throughout the entire community.

“I spoke with my window cleaner, and he told me 10 people had cancelled on his round,” he said. “It hits everyone, all the people in the supply chain, and beyond. For Lord Heseltine to say that just shows out of touch the Tories are with real people.”

Heseltine is indeed far removed from the average UK worker – making the Sunday Times Rich List in 2013, he has an estimated wealth of £264m.

He has previously made outlandish and out-of-touch comments about the economy – the peer told the Independent two years ago that growth in the UK was sluggish because UK workers lacked aspiration; that they didn’t have the “national will”.

The “exciting” number of “new jobs” Heseltine lauded today will mean little to highly skilled Redcar steelworkers.

As the Guardian has highlighted, without the steel industry, long-term prospects for those in the area are dismal, as the town sits on already deprived borough.

Redcar has been slammed by ÂŁ30m in spending cuts over the past five years, with another ÂŁ22m in cuts planned between 2017 and 2020. Nearby Middlesbrough was recently found to have the highest proportion of deprived neighbourhoods in the country.

And an analysis from the TUC showed earlier this month what, exactly, these “exciting new jobs” in the post-recession economy constitute – a surge in low-paid self-employment, zero hours contracts, and low-wage jobs.

Extremely difficult

Experience shows that many steelworkers who lose their jobs in these circumstances find it extremely difficult to find suitable new work – if any work at all.

That the government has turned its back on the steel industry – was the view of two steel workers who had previously lost their jobs.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (October 26) Alan Davies was made redundant from his job at the Llanwern steel works in South Wales in 2001.

“I was hoping to find work elsewhere,” he said, “but I just couldn’t get the money I was used to. I had to work nights in Asda just to make ends meet. It was not a nice place to be.”

Mike Cole understands. He was a crane driver at a steel works in Kent and both he and his son were made redundant in 2012.

“There’s no work in the Swale area,” he said. “There’s nothing there. You apply for jobs, you get no replies – it’s just very depressing.

Cole, in his sixties, had worked in the industry for over 40 years. “I’m still applying for jobs – I’m getting very despondent. My son is also still applying – he’s doing voluntary work at the moment.”

Eventually Alan Davies did return to steel in 2006. His advice to those now facing job loss is to, “Go to job fairs. It’s your best chance of getting back into work.”

For Mike Cole though job fairs have been of little help. “My son went to a job fair recently. He could be either a beautician, a hairdresser or a masseur. They had no manual work.”

Both workers are skilled – but are those skills transferable? “No they’re not compatible skills,” believes Davies. “The government really needs to do something to keep these skills and the industry safe. [The government] is wrong to turn its back [on the industry.] The government is not doing anything nearly enough.”

“Every government in the world is subsidising steel works to keep people employed,” adds Cole. “But our government has just turned their backs.”

 

The MP for Redcar, Anna Turley, today called Heseltine’s comments “disgusting”.

“There’s never a good time to lose your job,” she said. “And he further insults the dignity of highly skilled steel workers, many of whom have decades of experience and expertise.”

Inappropriate comment

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey also railed against Heseltine’s words. ”What a disgraceful, inappropriate comment to make,” he said.

“Lord Heseltine has only ever known tremendous wealth and privilege his entire life.

“What on earth qualifies him to offer any job seeking advice, especially not to people faced with losing their jobs, who are terrified for their futures and who have had nothing other from his government but platitudes about retraining and start-ups?

“This is just more back to the 80s nonsense as today’s Tories emulate Mrs Thatcher’s policy of leaving communities to fall into decline while the government watches on from the side-lines,” McCluskey added.

“These insensitive utterances from Lord Heseltine just confirm our worst fears – the Tories are not interested in offering any hope for our steel and manufacturing communities.

“Lord Heseltine should apologise immediately to the 5,000 people facing redundancy, and the many more in a state of fear for their jobs made worse by the abject lack of meaningful action by this government to support our steel industry.”