Tata Steel worker with 11-month-old says lives will be ripped apart by job cuts
Worried steelworkers told how their lives will be ripped apart if they lose their jobs.
Trade union members gathered in Westminster after 2,800 jobs were put at risk. Most of the jobs will be at the Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in South Wales, where two blast furnaces will be closed this year. In the Commons, Labour called on the firm not to make any "irreversible decisions" until after the general election.
At a protest outside Parliament organised by Unite, Ieuan Eltham, 29, who has worked at Port Talbot since he was 16, said he never imagined he’d be at risk of losing his job as he was told it was “a job for life”. "It is devastating news,” he told the Mirror. “I’ve got a partner and an 11-month-old daughter. My partner is really worried. We haven't got answers yet. Everybody's really worried. There’s lots of uncertainty.”
Labour called on the firm not to make any 'irreversible decisions' until after the general election (Humphrey Nemar)Ian Williams, 39, who has worked at Port Talbot for 22 years, said: “Me and my wife have been looking at our way of life and with the cost of living and everything now, me and my wife are started obviously looking at the effect of losing a new job because going from two wages down to one is obviously extremely worrying at the moment.”
He added: “I think what we can’t forget is that it's about the jobs of the future. We're only custodians of the jobs. “There's people in school now, eight, nine years old, where are they going to get jobs? This is decimating the whole community of South Wales.”
Fears for 800 British Steel jobs amid siren warnings for industry's future
Jason Wyatt, 41, who has worked at Port Talbot, said: “There is a lot of worry and trepidation at the moment because people haven't got a clue what the detail is yet. People haven't been told how they are directly going to be affected. It'd be very, very devastating to lose my job. My little boy’s 19. My little girl is 11. My wife - they're all reliant on me. I'm the main breadwinner in the house. I’ve got the same as most other 41-year-olds: the mortgage, the bills to pay.”
Ieuan Eltham, who has an 11-month-old daughter, said the news was 'devastating' (Humphrey Nemar)
Ian Williams said the decision to cut jobs is 'decimating a whole community of South Wales' (Humphrey Nemar)He said he hasn’t got “any nice words” to say about the company or the Conservatives. “We've had no support from the Tory government. We've had very little from the business. They're holding us in contempt, to say the least,” he said. “If the steelworks was in more of a swing seat area or more of a Tory voting area, then we may have seen a little more support [from the Government].”
Speaking at the protest, Labour MP Paula Barker said it was an “absolute disgrace” steelworkers were facing this. “This is one of the great industries that is left in this country and if you look back to the 80s and the decimation of the mining communities under the Thatcher government, it's very reminiscent of that to be honest,” she said.
“This is going to decimate families. This is going to decimate communities, and quite frankly, it's just not needed. What we don't want to see is cheap imported steel. We want the Government to back UK steel and UK workers.”
Unions have warned the decision risks turning the area into a ghost town and accused the Government and Tata of throwing "workers on the scrapheap". Peter Hughes, Unite secretary for Wales, said the situation was “farcical”. “It's unbelievable that a Government will give half a billion pounds to make two and a half people redundant with no job guarantees around the money they're giving,” he said.
“Families have worked there through generation after generation. What this has done is not guarantee the future. We believe if the right investments are in place, this could be the green capitalist deal for Europe.”
Jason Wyatt said he doesn't have 'any nice words' to say about the Tories (Humphrey Nemar)
Peter Hughes, Unite secretary for Wales, said the situation was 'farcical' (Humphrey Nemar)Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told the Commons it was “a calamitous mistake for the UK, under the Conservatives, to become the first major economy in the world without the ability to make our own primary steel”. Addressing ministers directly, he said: “I’m asking you, quite honestly, I am begging you to consider the arguments, consider what is really value for money and do not make decisions that are irreversible and prevent a far better outcome in future.”
Mr Reynolds said Labour has earmarked £3billion of investment from our spending plans to deliver a "pragmatic" and "flexible" solution for steelworkers. “What a tragedy it would be in the future to find a Britain that is building again, that is getting homes and infrastructure built, that has secure, low-carbon energy generation, that has a new wave of floating off-shore wind but which isn’t making the steel to provide those things," he said. “Labour has a plan to build a better plan and we want to build it with steel made in Britain.”
Business Minister Nus Ghani expressed her “sympathies for the employees of Tata Steel” and said the Government’s focus was “to ensure that steelmaking continues at Port Talbot”. “I want to assure this House that the Government is committed to doing just that, working very closely with Tata Steel, who are the decision-makers here and the Welsh Government to support the affected as much as possible,” she said.
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015.
British Steel owner faces calls to halt 'unacceptable' plan to cut 800 jobs
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