{"id":8277,"date":"2016-04-04T16:35:22","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T15:35:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=8277"},"modified":"2016-04-04T16:57:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T15:57:34","slug":"see-us-through-this-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=8277","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSee us through this storm\u00e2\u20ac\u0165"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Steelworkers are continuing their campaign to save the industry today (April 4) as steel unions held emergency talks this afternoon.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The talks come on the eve of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s woefully belated reaction to the news last week that Tata Steel would be selling its entire UK business, which sent shockwaves throughout the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business secretary Savid Javid returned from Australia on Friday (April 1) and addressed steelworkers in Port Talbot who demanded assurances that the government will step in and not allow the entire industry to collapse.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

UNITElive caught up with the Unite shop stewards from across the country who gathered at today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting at the TUC headquarters in London.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite member Kate Jauncey, a Port Talbot works engineer, joined a Unite steel workers delegation in Parliament only months ago in support of her colleagues in Scunthorpe and Redcar.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd now as we predicted, the crisis has come to us,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd the government has done practically nothing as far as we can see.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jauncey described her community as being in a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstate of shock\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 after the news came Wednesday that Tata Steel planned to sell the Port Talbot works.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe thought they were talking about a plan that was already happening \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a lot jobs were lost through that,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indeed, more than 1,000 people were made redundant as part of a turnaround plan that, steel workers hoped, would make the loss-making plant in Port Talbot a profitable one in two years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What many steelworkers thought was a Tata board meeting to discuss the future of this rescue plan turned into workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 worst fears \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Tata selling its entire UK operations.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jauncey expressed frustration that the workforce was kept in the dark for so long.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt appears now that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been talk of a sale going on for months, and now we may have only weeks of production left,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy fear is that the [Port Talbot] site as a whole is at risk,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jauncey noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt appears that nobody wants to look after the blast furnaces. One of them is very new, and one of them is the most efficient in Europe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shame because these furnaces represent true steelmaking capacity. It looks like the interested parties may only be interested in the downstream bits of the company.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Like Jauncey, Unite member Mike Davis, an electrician at Tata Steel in Llanwern, fears the worst, not only for his local plant but for every site that is now at risk, which could mean the loss of more than 40,000 jobs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe entire steel industry in the UK is at stake,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just regional or plant by plant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fundamental industry and I think the government should understand that there is both an economic and a social responsibility here around this business.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Unite shop stewards all said that they were hoping to take their campaign forward after today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meeting and continue putting pressure on both the government and Tata Steel to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite convenor at the Port Talbot steelworks Dave Bowyer hoped that today steel unions could find \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsome kind of direction moving forward.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company has to be challenged as being an ethical company,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey have a code of conduct that they have to follow and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to jump ship straight away because we need finance in order to keep producing in Port Talbot so that we can be sold as a viable company and not a company that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s caput.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bowyer also identified concrete steps that the government can take now, including providing the steel sites a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098bridging loan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that would enable them to keep operating until market conditions have improved. He also called for a serious procurement policy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all very well asking businesses to use British steel,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they need to be instructed to buy British.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also noted that the government reducing gas, electricity and carbon costs, when taken together with procurement and financial assistance, would \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsee us through this storm and we may then come out the other end.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite member Ralph Jones, a Tata Steel engineer in Scunthorpe, described his community\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insecurity hovering over the impending deal between Tata and investment firm Greybull, which is in negotiations to buy Tata\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Long Products Division.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGreybull are supposedly buying us out but our concern is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are they going to pull out at the last minute?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are still unsure of our futures so until that deal is actually signed that says \u00e2\u20ac\u0098yes Greybull is taking over\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 there will continue to be a lot of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bScunthorpe originally had 25,000 employees on the steelworks and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re now down to the last 4,000,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Jones noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Responding to those who say that steel workers must simply accept the industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s demise, Jones explained just how integral steel was to entire communities, including his own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s alright from them to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0098you can go and work in Morrison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for \u00c2\u01417 an hour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but these lads have got mortgages on their houses based on a \u00c2\u014130,000 salary,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to find another job that pays that. Their homes are at stake. And how is everyone going to work in shops when there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no money and therefore no one to buy anything? The whole town and community are relying on that steelworks.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite rep Les Price, of the Shotton works in North Wales, agreed. He explained just how urgent the situation now is.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe whole of the industry is now at stake,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve worked in it 36 years and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never, ever known a set of circumstances that meant a situation that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in currently. It looks potentially like the end of the industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the industry is to be saved, noted Rotherham steelworker and Unite SIMA vice chair Andy Thomson, unions will play an absolutely essential part.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen over the past year, unions have been front and centre in pushing for an understanding of the issues that we face,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI think without unions, government would have even less of an idea about the scale of the steel crisis. I think unions are key to finding a buyer for the steel sites; and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re key in protecting our terms and conditions when a sale hopefully comes along.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs a union, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re vital to the survival of our industry \u00e2\u20ac\u201c just as much as the government is.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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

Steelworkers are continuing their campaign to save the industry today (April 4) as steel unions held emergency talks this afternoon.   The talks come on the eve of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s woefully belated reaction to the news last week that Tata Steel would be selling its entire UK business, which sent shockwaves throughout the country.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8278,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":"Unite stewards\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 call for govt help","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277"}],"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=8277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8279,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8277\/revisions\/8279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}