10 October 2023 , 12:43
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Steelworkers today told of their hopes for an incoming Labour government rescuing their industry from “annihilation”.
Top officials from the Community union held crunch talks with Shadow Business Minister Sarah Jones on the fringes of the party’s annual conference in Liverpool. They pressed the vital importance of the sector during the 40-minute meeting, which overran its half-hour schedule, and warned her of the race against time to save jobs.
In the latest blow to the sector, about 3,000 jobs will be axed at Tata’s Port Talbot plant as it switches from traditional coal-fired blast furnaces to electric arc systems. The Government will pump £500million of taxpayers’ cash into the transition, with Tata stumping another £725m.
Steelworker Gary Keogh, 59, who has worked at Port Talbot for 37 years, told the Mirror: “Electric arc is not a silver bullet. We don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket and get caught up in something that could make it too late for the industry, because once it’s gone it’s gone. We need a strategy that has longevity, this can’t be about doing something short-term just to ‘get something done’. We welcome investment, of course we do, but I do not welcome annihilation of the British steelworkers.”
Workers, union officials and MPs met at Labour's annual conference in Liverpool (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)The move will slash Tata’s carbon emissions and boost the Government’s fight to hit net-zero by 2050. Visiting Port Talbot to announce the agreement earlier last month, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch claimed the deal was “good for the taxpayer, good for the workforce”. But Community’s national officer Alun Davies said today: “Three thousand jobs, three thousand families - are you really going to say that’s a good news story?”
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But he was buoyed by the meeting with Labour frontbencher Ms Jones, hailing “very positive stuff - especially compared with the level of engagement we have had from the Tory Party”. He added: “We just need to make sure Labour win the next general election, but the concern is that the steel industry can’t wait that long. The urgency is now.”
Alan Coombs, 58, who began working at Port Talbot when he was 17, demanded a better plan which protected jobs. “You can’t just discard the workforce and expect everything to turn out OK,” he said. “It’s got to be a solution for everybody. The strategy so far isn’t a sustainable one. It can’t just be electric arc - electric arc is part of the solution but it’s not the only solution.”
Reg Gutteridge, 53, who has worked at Tata’s Llanwern plant in Newport, South Wales, for 30 years, hoped the timetable for decommissioning Port Talbot’s blast furnaces “can be reversed at a point in time that Labour get in”. He said of the meeting: “We tried to get over the importance of a strategy for growth of the sector, not just a quick fix at a cost of thousands of jobs. We need a strategy and future for all UK steel.”
Reg Gutteridge, who works at Tata's Llanwern plant in Newport, South Wales (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)Jacqueline Thomas, 54, who has worked at Llanwern for 18 years, said: “It’s vital that we keep the steel industry for the country because without it all industries will collapse. It is a foundation industry.”
Community general secretary Roy Rickuss said the union will “continue to work closely with the Shadow Minister to secure change to the bad deal for steel that the Government has struck with Tata”. He added: "It's clear an electric arc-only approach is short-sighted and all options should be on the table. Labour is the party for steelworkers and we've seen this clearly with the commitments the party has set out for game-changing investment in our industry."
Community steelworkers' union general secretary Roy Rickhuss (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)Labour unveiled a £3billion plan to revolutionise the steel industry at its conference two years ago. Since then, thousands of job cuts have been announced and economic growth has stalled. “Labour has a plan for steel, we want to invest in steel,” said Ms Jones. “We want to work with the industry and work with unions to work out how we get high paid, good-skilled jobs and the steel of the future that we need for this country.”
She wanted to curb steel imports, warning that shipping in metals from abroad was a wasted opportunity for British workers. She vowed to “see how we can make the steel industry core to everything we are doing going forward”. “The steel industry is so important for our country,” she said. “The whole theme of this conference is how we are going to grow the economy - and steel has to be at the heart of that.”
Shadow Business Minister Sarah Jones spoke to the Mirror after her meeting (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)Community's assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said the “Labour leadership and membership is totally committed to supporting our steel industry”. He added: "That's why it's so important we ensure a change of government next year to give our industry the vote of confidence it needs - because Labour is on the side of our steel industry."
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.