With Tata Steel’s decision to close two blast furnaces by the end of September, trade unionists have been working on plans to make sure jobs are not lost across the country including at Corby’s tube works.
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00:00you
00:30Today, what we've done is we've asked all political parties that are seeking election
00:43in the Corby constituency, which is a steel constituency, to come along and listen to
00:49the Unite Workers' Plan for Steel, five asks for steel, and what each political party can
00:57do to support that, or if they're not going to support it, what are they going to support
01:02in the industry.
01:04Steel is a foundation industry in the UK. It's at the heart of manufacturing. It's literally
01:10the blood of manufacturing, from the cutlery we use when we eat our dinner, to the planes
01:16we fly on to go on holiday, to the ships that bring in goods and take goods out of the country.
01:23We're an island nation, we're a rich and resourced nation, and what's going on is industrial
01:29vandalism. Absolutely. We're offshoring our carbon emissions to foreign countries in the
01:35pursuit of profit, and that cannot be allowed. In doing that, communities, steel communities,
01:42are going to be decimated, and as I said earlier, I lived through that in the 80s. I've seen
01:49what happened to Corby, and I wouldn't wish that on any other community in Corby. So we're
01:54asking the politicians, what are they going to do for steel, to make steel the vibrant
02:00industry that it can be. With some investment, we know that the market for steel, globally,
02:10as well as in the UK, is going up, and there's some real opportunities for UK steel, real
02:16opportunities, with some support from the government, and with some private investment,
02:22to grow. And unfortunately, at the minute, it's not growing, it's stagnating and dying,
02:29and that affects workers and their communities. The history of my own industry, steel, is
02:35a proud one, but it's also one that has been tinged with sadness for those who have lost
02:41their lives on shifts in our foundries and mills over the last two centuries. The Corby Steel
02:48Memorial is a testament to the history, and something we should never, ever forget.
02:54While steelmaking will never be risk-free, the process is now much safer than it ever has been.
03:00But make no mistake, this isn't just a happy coincidence. It's the result of tireless lobbying.
03:08So last September, the government and Tata did a deal for £500 million from the government,
03:15and Tata will put in £750 million to start decarbonising the UK steel industry. Unfortunately,
03:21that is far short of what they needed. The company said they would work with us, they
03:25wouldn't make any cast-iron decisions, and we would look, whilst we transition over,
03:32we would transition over in the best way possible that would protect jobs, that would allow people,
03:39if they wanted to leave the business, leave with a package, and that would, in turn, give us a fair
03:45and just transition for everybody. Unfortunately, last Thursday, the company officially came back
03:52to us and said, both blast furnaces at Port Talbot will need to shut, which then triggered off
03:592,800 jobs will be lost across the UK. But, yeah, very disturbing times at the moment for the steel
04:08industry in the UK. Well, we've done everything, really. We've got a company called Syndex who
04:14worked with us, we gave them our red lines, and we adopted a multi-union plan, which all three
04:19unions adopted then and took forward to the company. Those plans were viable, they were
04:27cost-effective. It would mean that Tata would have to put in a few hundred million more,
04:33but over a period of time, they would get their money back through the decarbonisation process
04:39and the change in the processes, and they wouldn't make quite as much money as they would
04:46as if they removed the blast furnaces. But it would still be cost-effective for them.
04:52I've got friends in Port Talbot, right, so it's personal for me. Ringing me up,
04:57I'm going to lose my house, I don't know what, I'm going to support my family,
05:02got youngsters saying I've just taken out a mortgage, I don't even know if I'm going to
05:05have a job. And every time we've seen places have large-scale redundancies, we've seen a spike in
05:13mental health and well-being, suicide rates have gone up, and we're starting to see that across
05:18the UK now in the areas that are affected by the announcement. And we've got people contacting us
05:23directly saying we're struggling, we're struggling. So much so that in Port Talbot, we're doing an
05:28event on the 1st of May, specifically on mental health, specifically on it. They don't have to
05:35do it. Like I said, our plan allowed them to transition, keep a blast furnace going until 2032.
05:42It would still cover the government's green transition period. But like I said, they say
05:52it's about green, but it's not. It's not. This is about pounds, shillings and pence. That's all it
05:58is. And now you've got a company that are turning off our blast furnaces in the UK, affecting all
06:05the downstream places like Corby, and they're importing dirty-made steel by blast furnaces
06:11from India and bringing it over here in dirty big diesel boats to produce over here,
06:18because of the carbon border adjustment mechanisms. They don't pay tariffs on it.
06:22Thank you, Madam Chair. I like dealing with facts because I think facts tell the truth and more
06:27truthful. It's factual that China, Brazil and Australia produce a better quality iron ore
06:37than what we do in this country. And it's cheaper to import it than it is to dig it out the ground
06:42here. Canada, Sweden, Africa, Norway, Brazil imported more steel into this country over the
06:49last year from 2022, which again states it's better quality than the steel we're producing here.
06:57Don't get me wrong, I do support... No, 100%. We don't make the worst quality steel,
07:05we actually make the best quality steel. You'll find that the likes of Sweden will make other
07:10leaders in green steel, which is the way we need to be. You'll find the likes of Australia
07:16are going down the hydrogen route for steel making, which is green and a better way of doing
07:21it than an electric arc. So I don't agree with that. So we've got a plan. So community and GMB
07:28have a plan. We've started working on it already. We've approached the company and the company are
07:34going to meet with us Wednesday, Thursday, Friday next week. And we are going to start the wheels
07:40in motion to try and mitigate these job losses, ask for the just transition, however we can do it.
07:48And look to see what we can do for the employees that are affected, because we don't believe the
07:52packages on the table at the moment are good enough to bring forward the people that might
07:58want to go. If they can tweak that package, then that will allow more people to want to say,
08:03put their hand up and say, we'll go, which will protect the ones that want to stay.
08:07So that's the next point for us. We are doing what we can do. We're in the middle of a ballot
08:13at the moment. It's imperative that we get the yes, yes vote on that. Yes for industrial action.
08:18Yes for action up to industrial action. That will give us more leverage when we get around
08:23the table with the company. It doesn't mean that they'll be going out on strike. It doesn't. It
08:28means that it gives us more power when we're in the room to say, this is the mandate that we've
08:32got from the people that have worked for you tirelessly for years and that have given everything
08:37for you guys. You now need to pay them back. But we've balloted every plant across the UK.
08:43So Corby, Hartlepool, Shotton, Port Talbot, Llanwern, Trostra. We won the ballot for industrial
08:51action. If we can, it's always a last resort, right? But if we can pull on the company to do
08:58what's right and we can go back to the members with a better plan than what's on the table now,
09:06then they will need to look at it.