As long as it takes

As the UK steel industry is set to crumble under the weight of the Tory government’s negligence, steelworkers and their communities, trade unions and Labour MPs have launched an all-out offensive to save the bedrock of the nation’s manufacturing economy.

Dozens of workers from steel communities in Teesside, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, the West Midlands and south Wales travelled to Parliament today (October 28) to meet with Labour MPs ahead of an opposition day debate on the future of UK steel.

The debate has been called following a spate of job losses in the past month alone – first with the Redcar steel mill closure that shed 2,200 jobs.

Tata Steel UK last week confirmed plans to shed 1,100 jobs at sites in Scunthorpe and Scotland. Last week also saw steel processing giant Caparo Industries go into administration threating 1,700 jobs.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell told the steelworkers before the debate that MPs would continue to pressure the government to step in and save the industry – and they would not let up until they took action.

Name and shame

“Like we did with tax credits, if we name them and shame them and put enough pressure on them, they can do U-turns,” he said.

“We know what’s needed; they know what’s needed,” McDonnell added, using the examples of German and Italian governments which have successfully supported their respective steel industries.

Beyond emergency action needed now to stop the mounting job losses, McDonnell highlighted the importance of a long-term strategy.

“We’ve got to talk again about our long-term plan – about new technologies as well,” he said. Not just that we can be competitive, but our investment plan should go like this – we invest in modernising the steel industry but we do that because we’re going to invest in modernising our infrastructure.

“You can’t modernise your infrastructure if you’re dependent on a large amount of imports from elsewhere,” McDonnell added.

“You’ll always be dependent on that external market. We have to build up our internal market to use public procurement as we modernise our economy. It’s simple really. This is not rocket science. All that’s needed is a government that’s willing to help.

“And I promise this campaign will be with you 100 per cent,” he told the steelworkers.

Urgency

Unite convenor Kevin Cook from Redcar told UNITElive about the urgency of the situation for his community.

“Something needs to be done rapidly,” he said. “The speed of the closure of the SSI plant was phenomenal – really, really brutal.

“It closed in a matter of days. It went from a fully functioning plant producing quality steel – we were breaking records, making more than we’d ever done before. And we just shut virtually overnight.”

Cook explained that beyond the thousands of direct jobs being lost in Redcar, there are many thousands more at risk in the supply chain as well.

“The figure being bandied about now is more than 9,000,” he said. “We’ve already got the highest unemployment in the country – it’s going to be really, really bad time.”

Unite convenor Tony Pearson works at the Tata Beam Mill in Teesside, which is a shared site with SSI. He recalled when he first started working in steel as an apprentice nearly 40 years ago.

“We were told we had a job for life, and there would be jobs for our children and our children’s children,” he said.

“There were more than 20,000 people working in steel in Teesside when I started, now that’s been reduced to 1,200 people in the Tees valley.

Pearson balked at the idea that steelworkers can simply find other jobs – an idea most recently put forward by Lord Heseltine, who said of steel job losses that “now was a good time to lose your job” because of “the number of new jobs in the economy today.”

“There are no alternatives,” Pearson said. “In the 1980s when we started our service industry, we were promised the brave new world of call centre jobs. So that picked up some of the job losses from the steel sector then. Then what we saw was that those jobs were being outsourced outside of the UK.

“So then they had retail parks built to provide service jobs in retail,” Pearson added.

“But these are jobs that pay minimum wage or not much more. If you haven’t got the high skill jobs with higher wages, you can’t sustain the sector. Service industry jobs aren’t going to support the service industry. It’s simply not sustainable.”

Unite member Kate Jauncey, who works as an engineer for Tata Steel in Port Talbot, fears that her steel community in Wales will be next on the chopping block if the government doesn’t step in.

“I’ve come to support my colleagues who are under immediate threat,” she said. “I think we need to force the government into doing something. It’s a very important industry and I really don’t think that [the government] gets that.

“They only seem to be interested in moving money around; they don’t seem to be interested in people making things anymore. And that’s what made this country great.”

Unite rep Paul Maddison (pictured), who works for Tata Steel in Scunthorpe, described the fear that’s rippling throughout his community – a fear that his family is just now coming to grips with.

“I’m married with a young family and a mortgage,” Maddison – father of three children aged 2, 5 and 7 – noted.

Unite rep and Tata Steel worker Paul Maddison

‘Lose our house’ fear

“None of us know what’s going to happen. I’m concerned about my job, my wife’s concerned about her job since she works in the local community and we fear we could lose our house.

“Will we be able to find other jobs? Will I have to work away from my family? All things like that –it’s the day-to-day world that me and my colleagues live in fear of.”

But Maddison pointed out that the crisis goes beyond the current haemorrhaging of jobs in specific communities – steel is an industry that the nation’s economy cannot afford to do without.

“You only have to look around this room or look around the city to realise that almost everything has got steel in it,” he said.

“Once that’s gone, we’re going to be cap-in-hand to China, to India – and they’ll be able to put up the price of steel anytime they want. We’re going to be beholden to other people to supply us with what we can make.”

As bad as the crisis facing the steel industry is now, as job loss shockwaves rock the nation in a matter of weeks, Maddison believes there is still hope.

“I don’t know whether [changes] will happen today – but it will be interesting to see if after [the debate] today we can see a glimmer of hope that will put us back on the right path,” he said.

“I was very impressed by how passionate the MPs speaking today were, and that will be something I can take back to my colleagues in Scunthorpe – I’ve seen it first hand, that they are working for us and fighting our corner.”

Unite national officer Harish Patel told UNITElive that continued pressure now was absolutely critical.

“As far as I’m concerned this campaign has only just started,” he said. “This crisis affects not only our members, not only the steel industry but also the entire supply chain, and so other industries and our entire manufacturing base is at risk as well.

“It’s an integral part of our British heritage – this is what’s at stake. We’re going to continue to pressure the government for as long as it takes.”

Motion is lost

But as we publish this we can sadly report that Labour’s motion, which called for the government to support the steel industry was defeated by 307 votes to 280 – majority 27.

A Conservative amendment, in which it stated MPs note their concern and agree all parties should work together to help the industry, was approved unopposed.

“The Tories had the chance today to send the clearest signal possible that they supported the steel industry,” said a disappointed Tony Burke, Unite assistant general secretary.

“They did not have to vote against the Labour amendment.  What a sad end to today’s debate and for the steelworkers today who go back to their communities after a day fighting for this vital industry, they will do so with a heavy heart.

“We will continue to do everything we can to make the case for a better deal from this government for this core sector.  Today is not the end of this fight, not by any means.”

Burke added, “I sincerely hope that the Conservative think again about hailing themselves as the party of the working people as this is now causing anger among actual working people.”

Watch the full opposition day debate on steel here.

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