{"id":6908,"date":"2015-11-24T16:10:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T16:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6908"},"modified":"2015-11-24T16:11:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T16:11:07","slug":"high-price-of-failing-to-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6908","title":{"rendered":"High price of failing to help"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This government must now decide which it prefers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c its party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ideology or serious action to save UK manufacturing, says Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, as he addressed the Save our Steel rally in Sheffield on Saturday (November 21).<\/em><\/p>\n

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Today\u00c2\u00a0in Sheffield, the city that means steel, families gathered to fight for their future.<\/p>\n

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Steelworkers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 graft means taxes for the Exchequer, cash that funds our hospitals and schools.\u00c2\u00a0 Pound for pound, manufacturing is the biggest creator of wealth that this nation has. For every one steelworker, another four families benefit.<\/p>\n

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Either the government doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get the magnitude of this contribution or doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to get it.\u00c2\u00a0 It seems that they would rather ease workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 path to the dole queue than help rescue our foundation industries.<\/p>\n

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If this was Germany, Angela Merkel would have harassed me and every union leader in the country to pull together \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the total opposite to our PM who goes out of his way to attack trade unions.<\/p>\n

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If this was Italy <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If this was Italy, the government would not have wrung its hands while Redcar was at risk.\u00c2\u00a0 They saved their plant while we have the absolute travesty of a viable coke plant now standing idle, sliding further beyond repair with every passing day.<\/p>\n

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If these plants were in the City of London or were banks, do you think we would be here today, fighting for a future?<\/p>\n

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No, steel businesses would have been hosed down with taxpayers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 money, no questions asked. We are not asking for hand-outs for badly run business.<\/p>\n

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Our steel is facing tough times, buffeted by the global economy and undermined by Chinese dumping their inferior product.<\/p>\n

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But our plants turn out some of the best steel in the world \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it is criminal of this government not to take a stake, as the public wants, to help us through this crisis.<\/p>\n

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Ridiculous <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We are already in the ridiculous position that warships built to defend our nation use imported steel \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from Sweden.<\/p>\n

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If Tata closes Scunthorpe then we will not be able to produce the tracks for our own railways.<\/p>\n

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These islands \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the sixth richest country on the planet,\u00c2\u00a0 the birth place of the industrial revolution \u00e2\u20ac\u201c will be reduced to begging on the market for the raw materials needed to keep our country functioning.<\/p>\n

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But I have news for Tory ministers.\u00c2\u00a0 Their irresponsible ideology just met its match.<\/p>\n

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Determined <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

UK steelworkers and their unions are determined to fight for our future. If a road or a railway is being constructed anywhere on these islands \u00e2\u20ac\u201c UK steel must be used. If a nuclear plant is being built or our ports being modernised \u00e2\u20ac\u201c then it must be with UK steel.<\/p>\n

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It is very simple \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if you want our contracts then use our steel. Ease steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energy bills, help with business rates and stop welcoming in the vast bulk of China\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s low grade product.<\/p>\n

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We have done it before.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0We brought every bit of fight we had to save our car industry and today it thrives.<\/p>\n

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But I also say to Tata Steel \u00e2\u20ac\u201c do not walk away. Do the right thing by the British workers who have served you so well. CEO Cyrus Mystry, please pick up that phone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c we have talking to do.<\/p>\n

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This government must now decide which it prefers – its party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ideology or serious action to save UK manufacturing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We all know what the more responsible course for our country \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and if they fail to take it then they must never be forgiven.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the Daily Mirror, November 21 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This government must now decide which it prefers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c its party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ideology or serious action to save UK manufacturing, says Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, as he addressed the Save our Steel rally in Sheffield on Saturday (November 21).   Today\u00c2\u00a0in Sheffield, the city that means steel, families gathered to fight for their future.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Tories will never be forgiven if steel not saved","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6932,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6908\/revisions\/6932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}