{"id":8265,"date":"2016-04-01T16:02:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T15:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8265"},"modified":"2016-04-04T11:14:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T10:14:19","slug":"more-than-tea-and-sympathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8265","title":{"rendered":"More than ‘tea and sympathy’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Three days after news broke that Tata Steel would be selling its entire UK business, business secretary Sajid Javid has finally returned from his trip to Australia and today (April 1) faces Port Talbot steelworkers, 4,000 of whom risk losing their livelihoods.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI want to reassure them myself that the Government is on their side in working hard to achieve a long-term solution for them, for the region and for the wider UK steel industry,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Javid said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Despite Javid, prime minister David Cameron and business minister Anna Soubry all highlighting in recent days that they would look at \u00e2\u20ac\u015ball options\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to save the industry, the government backpedalled on the most obvious solution \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nationalising Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UK business while it searched for a buyer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think nationalisation is going to be the solution,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Javid said yesterday, echoing Cameron\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insistence that the government taking a stake in Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bnot the answer\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While Javid belatedly left Australia to meet with Port Talbot steel workers this afternoon, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was on the scene less than 24 hours after the news from Mumbai hit that Tata Steel would be pulling out of the UK.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Calling for at least temporary nationalisation, Corbyn pledged support for “immediate government intervention to protect our steel industry and not see it destroyed on the altar of a global corporation that decided somewhere along the line that Port Talbot is expendable”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Sorry, it’s not,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe’ve got a different story.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Critics have argued that the government taking over Tata Steel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s UK operations would be prohibitively expensive for the taxpayer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been estimated that the annual operating costs for Tata Steel sites in Britain would amount to \u00c2\u01411.5bn each year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the Guardian showed today<\/a> how relatively small a sum this is compared to other areas of government expenditure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For example, the bank bailout during the financial crisis alone cost about \u00c2\u0141995bn. Running Tata\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s steel operations for a year is also equivalent to about only one-fifth of the cost of a new submarine, and one-thirty sixth the cost of building HS2.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A new Sky poll released today<\/a> showed that more than two-thirds of the public were in favour of the government nationalising the steel plant in Port Talbot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Ahead of business secretary Javid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visit to Port Talbot, European leaders have slammed the government for blocking measures that would support the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own steel industry as well as steel industries across the continent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Italian and French officials joined industry group the European Steel Association (ESA) in criticising the government for failing to stand up to cheap Chinese steel imports flooding European markets.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK is the ringleader in a blocking minority of member states that is preventing a European Commission proposal on the modernisation of Europe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trade defence instruments,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 ESA head Axel Eggert told the Financial Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Eggert referred to the UK government voting against the \u00e2\u20ac\u015blesser duty rule\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a move that would allow the EU to significantly raise tariffs on imported steel. At the moment, Chinese steel faces only a 16 per cent tariff; in the US, tariffs on cheap imported steel are as high as 200 per cent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tata Steel itself warned a Commons committee only weeks ago that the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s failure to stand up to China on steel would lead to an \u00e2\u20ac\u015beven greater steel crisis\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098PR stunt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the business secretary arrives at Port Talbot, Unite Wales secretary Andy Richards warned that Javid\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s visit risks being nothing more than a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098PR stunt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 if his trip to Wales isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t followed urgently by action.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSteelworkers at Port Talbot and across Tata Steel will want to know just exactly what Sajid Javid intends to do to safeguard their industry, their livelihoods and their communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo far all they have received is tea and sympathy from afar with no real concrete solutions for the industrial crisis facing the nation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“We’ve been here before when the business secretary visited Redcar,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Richards added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLots of noise and promises to deal with the symptoms of the steel crisis, rather than the causes as thousands of livelihoods went to wall because of government inaction.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“When he meets steelworkers, Sajid Javid needs to commit to ensuring British steel can compete on a level playing field by promising to drop his opposition to higher EU tariffs of cheap Chinese steel and honour the commitments to help with energy costs which were quietly watered down by George Osborne in his budget.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut most of all he needs to signal his commitment to steel and manufacturing by promising to back British steel with a line of financial support to get it through these dark days,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Richards went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe needs to look workers in the eye, not just at Port Talbot, but at sites across Tata Steel from Shotton and Llanwern, to Rotherham and Corby and say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098your government backs you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite Shotton works branch chair Anthony Simpson explained just how devastating the uncertainty is as steelworkers in Shotton wait for Javid and his government to take action. Shotton works is among the steel sites in the UK that remains substantially profitable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bShotton employees are committed to and proud to work at Shotton steelworks,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Simpson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have always strived to provide word leading, quality differentiated market leading products for our loyal customer base.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe as a plant are left in an uncertain situation with no idea what the future holds for us,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Simpson highlighted, too, that the workforce remains hopeful.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is clear the announcement will mean change but that is nothing new at Shotton who have repeatedly managed change in our history and continued to push forwards to succeed to the world class plant we are today,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay tuned on UNITElive for the latest following business secretary Sajid Javid’s visit to Port Talbot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three days after news broke that Tata Steel would be selling its entire UK business, business secretary Sajid Javid has finally returned from his trip to Australia and today (April 1) faces Port Talbot steelworkers, 4,000 of whom risk losing their livelihoods.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI want to reassure them myself that the Government is on their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[503,430,53],"wps_subtitle":"Steel workers demand action from business secretary Javid","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265"}],"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=8265"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8267,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8265\/revisions\/8267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}