{"id":7924,"date":"2016-03-01T17:14:07","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7924"},"modified":"2016-03-02T17:07:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-02T17:07:04","slug":"difficult-battle-but-plenty-ready-to-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7924","title":{"rendered":"Difficult battle \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but plenty ready to fight"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Steelworkers have continued their fight to save the industry, as a Unite delegation from steel communities across the UK travelled to London last night (February 29) to attend an opposition day debate about the steel crisis.<\/p>\n

 
\nShadow business secretary Angela Eagle led the debate, and hammered the government for its continued inaction in the face of a steel crisis that may see the industry completely collapse.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steel industry is in crisis, and despite the warning signs flashing red, the Tories have had to be dragged kicking and screaming to come up with any kind of response,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Eagle said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Shameful complacency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMore than 5,000 UK steel jobs have been lost over the past 12 months,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRedcar has been abandoned, the blast furnace and the coke ovens destroyed by this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shameful complacency and inaction. Tata Steel has announced the loss of 1,050 jobs this year alone, and there are worrying signs that the entire industry in the UK is hanging by a thread.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nEagle argued that the steel industry is worth nearly \u00c2\u014110bn and constitutes the lifeblood of many communities throughout the UK. She noted also steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s central strategic importance in areas such as defence.<\/p>\n

 
\nShe and other Labour MPs railed against the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opposition to scrapping the \u00e2\u20ac\u015blesser duty rule\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, which would enable the EU to significantly hike tariffs on cheap steel imports flooding the market.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe Labour MPs also challenged the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contention that granting market economy status to China would not harm UK steel.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile the Labour motion, which called for action on tariffs and the publication of a strategy for the industry, was defeated by 288 to 239, Unite assistant general secretary Tony Burke said the debate exposed the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 weakness and bolstered Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguments.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe reps who attended the debate were very impressed by the Labour team, led by Angela Eagle,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey demolished all of business secretary Sajid Javid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguments and he was noticeably put on the back foot.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNone of the Tory contributions were strong and it was obvious from the debate that the government side was wanting,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nUNITElive spoke to the delegation of reps who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come from Port Talbot, Rotherham, and Shotton among other steel towns to support Labour in its call for immediate government action.<\/p>\n

 
\nJason Wyatt, an electrician at the Port Talbot steelworks told UNITElive that the entire Port Talbot community would be decimated if the government doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t step in soon.<\/p>\n

 
\nBiggest employer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLot of people are worried and downbeat,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because the whole Port Talbot community relies on steel in one way or another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the biggest employer in the area, and besides there are a lot of jobs outside the steelworks that rely on steelworks still \u00e2\u20ac\u201c like the local cafes and chip shops.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFrustrated about the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued inaction, Wyatt criticised the empty promises they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made thus far.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been saying they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to look into it, but you can look at a glass of milk that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poured on the floor and unless you mop it up, no amount of looking into it is going to make any difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why we attended the debate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to try to lobby them again and get some sort of response, some sort of positive output from it.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOther European governments have gone above and beyond for their own steel industries, so it shows that something can be done \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in their power to do it,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nAndy Thomson, a Tata Steel worker from Rotherham, came to represent his community where more than 700 jobs are set to go by the end of the month.<\/p>\n

 
\nHe echoed Wyatt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frustration with the government which has been slow to respond while other governments in Europe have stepped in.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt winds me up that other European governments are taking action and ours isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard a few people say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Well you bailed out the banks so why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you bail out steel?\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think we need bailing out; we need a level playing field so we can compete with global steel manufacturers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nRock bottom<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Barry Hayman of Newport, South Wales, is employed at the Llanwern steelworks, and said that in his community, morale has hit rock-bottom.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt makes me angry that the government has not taken action yet,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked in the steelworks ever since I left school. Although there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a lot of decline, we are very efficient now but we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t compete against countries where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being subsidised by the state such as China or Russia. It wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter how good we were; we will always be undercut.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile the business secretary Sajid Javid speaks about cheap Chinese steel imports in the abstract, Hamon knows exactly what it feels like to see tonnes of foreign steel flooding the market.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe place where I live near Newport docks is actually one of the places where they bring a lot of this cheap foreign steel in,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo we get to see it first hand \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which is doubly irritating. At one point, we were literally struggling to export because the docks were so full of foreign imports coming in. Witnessing this, to me it felt very bizarre.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHow far can you walk without touching something that has steel in it?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Hayman added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou only have to look around this room or the building sites outside to realise the scale of the problem — if we make none of our own steel, all of the steel that goes into everything you see will have to be imported. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at that point that they can charge us what they want.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMark Turner, a Port Talbot steelworker and rep, slammed the government for its continued \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwarm words\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and no action following last night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s debate.<\/p>\n

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

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was very disappointing to see hardly any Tory MPs turn up to the actual debate, but at the end they turn out in droves to vote against the motion,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not even making the time to come listen to us.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe very much appreciated the support of Labour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they spoke eloquently in support of our case and all they were saying was correct,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe galling thing is that all other parties, and even some Tory MPs do want to help us, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this government that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standing in the way and leading us to the slaughter.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite Shotton works branch chair Anthony Simpson agreed.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPerhaps if the Conservatives put as much time into positive intervention as they did obstruction we could move forward and deal with all our issues and give the lifeline to the UK foundation industry which is in severe crisis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\nSimpson added that all reps who attended were sincerely thankful for the supporting MPs \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcontinued hard word to help the steel industry.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nTony Burke emphasised that the fight must go on. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe must continue putting on the pressure \u00e2\u20ac\u201c last night showed that while we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a difficult battle ahead, there are plenty of people who are joining together to fight our corner.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Steelworkers have continued their fight to save the industry, as a Unite delegation from steel communities across the UK travelled to London last night (February 29) to attend an opposition day debate about the steel crisis.   Shadow business secretary Angela Eagle led the debate, and hammered the government for its continued inaction in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":" Steel debate shows govt weakness","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7924"}],"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=7924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7926,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7924\/revisions\/7926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}