*[…] Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community Union which represents most steelworkers at Port Talbot, said it was an “incredibly sad and poignant day” for the British steel industry.*
*”It’s also a moment of huge frustration – it simply didn’t have to be this way.”*
*”Last year Community and GMB published a credible alternative plan for Port Talbot which would have ensured a fair transition to green steelmaking and prevented compulsory redundancies. Tata’s decision to reject that plan will go down as an historic missed opportunity,” he added.*
*[…] As well as around 2,800 job losses, many fear there will be a greater number of workers in the wider supply chain impacted.*
*Today the Welsh government announced that businesses impacted will be able to apply for funding to overcome “short-term challenges” during the transition phase.*
*[…] The giant Port Talbot steelworks will not close completely – it will continue to operate hot and cold strip mills to roll steel slab imported from overseas.*
*But it is a hugely significant day not only for the UK’s industrial infrastructure, but for a town built on steel that will no longer produce it.*
Former_Weakness4315 on
Who needs industry when we can have more bankers and Amazon delivery drivers?
[deleted] on
[deleted]
DuckInTheFog on
>But it said steelmaking at the site will resume in 2027/2028 thanks to its investment in “low-CO2 ‘green’ steel”, offering a “brighter, greener future”.
>The scheme will “sustain more than 5,000 jobs across the UK, and give Tata Steel businesses across the UK a competitive market advantage.”
I prefer the shift to greener steel but what happens to that community in the meantime
Beautiful-Health-976 on
Just sayin, the EU Green Deal would have ironically subsidized those steel works…
simanthropy on
Read the article before getting worked up.
It’s shutting down for 4 years in order to retool and make steel in a more modern way.
The story here is the job losses, not the loss of steel making in the UK. There will still be UK steel for the foreseeable. The job losses are shit though- hope they manage to find something else :-/
Mammoth-Ad-562 on
So let me get this right. They reject the chance to transition without any job loss in favour of stopping production for 3/4 years and the UK government paying for half of the new site and offering a transition fund for workers/businesses in the area?
There has to be something shady going on here. The government should have forced them to transition to a temporary site to prevent job losses.
Call me a cynic but I have a sneaky suspicion this is about the government meeting it’s net zero targets.
stinkyjim88 on
Lot of the metal firms are really quiet some doing 3 day weeks .
MRJKY on
I was sure the government gave them money to stay open.
Bully2533 on
and what the headline failed to say – will soon be reopening as one of the worlds most efficient and advanced steel production facilities.
PsychoSwede557 on
> Tata Steel is replacing the furnace with a greener electric arc furnace which will use UK-sourced scrap steel, but that will not be operational until 2028.
> The transition will cost £1.25bn, £500m of which is being paid by the British government and will lead to nearly 3,000 job losses, almost 75% of the workforce.
> Tata Steel said in a statement it was “a significant event in the history of iron and steelmaking in the UK as the legacy steelmaking assets in Port Talbot close, having reached their end of life.”
> But it said steelmaking at the site will resume in 2027/2028 thanks to its investment in “low-CO2 ‘green’ steel”, offering a “brighter, greener future”.
> The scheme will “sustain more than 5,000 jobs across the UK, and give Tata Steel businesses across the UK a competitive market advantage.”
So it’s just going to re-open in 4 years?
MrPloppyHead on
I spoke to somebody from port talbot about this and he said there was quite a lot of people that are happy about this because of the extreme levels of pollution. Given that we will still make steel once the new site is up and running it doesn’t seem a bad idea, you know… progress.
wotad on
Is it not re opening in a few years it’s being changed right.
Lo_jak on
So we have lost the ability to manufacture high quality steel that’s required for military purposes…… wouldn’t that be really stupid if there was a war going on in Europe.
Raddish53 on
Tatami steel has a history of only existing because of a continuous flow of grants, tax breaks and bail-outs. After watching the similar drama’s unfold over the Redcar plant- it seemed to me, like a business which was existing solely to see how much funding it can raise and not how much business it can make. It was shown decades ago that our steel prices and wages cannot compete (even if we were still politically managed by the E.U).
Rich-Cow-8056 on
Wasn’t Tata bought out by an Indian company a while back? I remember hearing about it but did a quick Google just now and didn’t seem clear
Ex-art-obs1988 on
Re opening in 4 years…
I’ll believe that when I see it, tata leadership are well known liars and conmen.
They brought the plant to get the patents. Ran it into the ground and now are taking out any competition to its Indian plants.
4 years time they’ll claim that energy costs are too high to reopen and will turn port talbot into a mill for there bars of steel.
More decent paying working class jobs down the drain.
MichaelMyersReturns on
Steelworks is a shit job that noone in their right mind wanted to do
turbo_dude on
IT people who lost their jobs to outsourcing
¯_ (ツ)_/¯
swed2019 on
The Kremlin’s useful idiots in the trade unions have managed to weaken our national security, which was their purpose all along even if they’re too idiotic to realise it.
callendoor on
It’s amazing just how misleading “news” headlines are. It’s a temporary closure. The majority of “losses” are voluntary redundancy. FFS, this is just willful misinformation.
wazeuser on
The way countries like the UK have so casually closed down/forced out their own industry in favour of just outsourcing the very same industry to countries that, let’s be honest, are a couple of steps from becoming world pariahs, will I feel be seen as one of the great mistakes of the late 20th/early 21st century.
Kwinza on
God damn Labour ruining our natonal industries over the last 15 years.
StiffAssedBrit on
Easy to be Net Zero with 15 million unemployed and the rest on minimum wage zero hours contracts.
That is where we are heading!
mikeh117 on
They shut down all the coal mines in the 80’s and those communities are all just fine, so I’m sure everyone will pull through and quickly find employment elsewhere. /s
Wonderful_Dingo3391 on
I briefly worked with the environmental health department in port talbot and they told me every year it was a close race between themselves and Belfast as to which was the most polluted area.
CuckAdminsDkSuckers on
tories let china undercut our steel industry for decades
27 Comments
Excerpts from [article](https://news.sky.com/story/tata-steel-uks-biggest-steelworks-to-cease-production-after-more-than-100-years-13224922) by Dan Whitehead:
*[…] Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community Union which represents most steelworkers at Port Talbot, said it was an “incredibly sad and poignant day” for the British steel industry.*
*”It’s also a moment of huge frustration – it simply didn’t have to be this way.”*
*”Last year Community and GMB published a credible alternative plan for Port Talbot which would have ensured a fair transition to green steelmaking and prevented compulsory redundancies. Tata’s decision to reject that plan will go down as an historic missed opportunity,” he added.*
*[…] As well as around 2,800 job losses, many fear there will be a greater number of workers in the wider supply chain impacted.*
*Today the Welsh government announced that businesses impacted will be able to apply for funding to overcome “short-term challenges” during the transition phase.*
*[…] The giant Port Talbot steelworks will not close completely – it will continue to operate hot and cold strip mills to roll steel slab imported from overseas.*
*But it is a hugely significant day not only for the UK’s industrial infrastructure, but for a town built on steel that will no longer produce it.*
Who needs industry when we can have more bankers and Amazon delivery drivers?
[deleted]
>But it said steelmaking at the site will resume in 2027/2028 thanks to its investment in “low-CO2 ‘green’ steel”, offering a “brighter, greener future”.
>The scheme will “sustain more than 5,000 jobs across the UK, and give Tata Steel businesses across the UK a competitive market advantage.”
I prefer the shift to greener steel but what happens to that community in the meantime
Just sayin, the EU Green Deal would have ironically subsidized those steel works…
Read the article before getting worked up.
It’s shutting down for 4 years in order to retool and make steel in a more modern way.
The story here is the job losses, not the loss of steel making in the UK. There will still be UK steel for the foreseeable. The job losses are shit though- hope they manage to find something else :-/
So let me get this right. They reject the chance to transition without any job loss in favour of stopping production for 3/4 years and the UK government paying for half of the new site and offering a transition fund for workers/businesses in the area?
There has to be something shady going on here. The government should have forced them to transition to a temporary site to prevent job losses.
Call me a cynic but I have a sneaky suspicion this is about the government meeting it’s net zero targets.
Lot of the metal firms are really quiet some doing 3 day weeks .
I was sure the government gave them money to stay open.
and what the headline failed to say – will soon be reopening as one of the worlds most efficient and advanced steel production facilities.
> Tata Steel is replacing the furnace with a greener electric arc furnace which will use UK-sourced scrap steel, but that will not be operational until 2028.
> The transition will cost £1.25bn, £500m of which is being paid by the British government and will lead to nearly 3,000 job losses, almost 75% of the workforce.
> Tata Steel said in a statement it was “a significant event in the history of iron and steelmaking in the UK as the legacy steelmaking assets in Port Talbot close, having reached their end of life.”
> But it said steelmaking at the site will resume in 2027/2028 thanks to its investment in “low-CO2 ‘green’ steel”, offering a “brighter, greener future”.
> The scheme will “sustain more than 5,000 jobs across the UK, and give Tata Steel businesses across the UK a competitive market advantage.”
So it’s just going to re-open in 4 years?
I spoke to somebody from port talbot about this and he said there was quite a lot of people that are happy about this because of the extreme levels of pollution. Given that we will still make steel once the new site is up and running it doesn’t seem a bad idea, you know… progress.
Is it not re opening in a few years it’s being changed right.
So we have lost the ability to manufacture high quality steel that’s required for military purposes…… wouldn’t that be really stupid if there was a war going on in Europe.
Tatami steel has a history of only existing because of a continuous flow of grants, tax breaks and bail-outs. After watching the similar drama’s unfold over the Redcar plant- it seemed to me, like a business which was existing solely to see how much funding it can raise and not how much business it can make. It was shown decades ago that our steel prices and wages cannot compete (even if we were still politically managed by the E.U).
Wasn’t Tata bought out by an Indian company a while back? I remember hearing about it but did a quick Google just now and didn’t seem clear
Re opening in 4 years…
I’ll believe that when I see it, tata leadership are well known liars and conmen.
They brought the plant to get the patents. Ran it into the ground and now are taking out any competition to its Indian plants.
4 years time they’ll claim that energy costs are too high to reopen and will turn port talbot into a mill for there bars of steel.
More decent paying working class jobs down the drain.
Steelworks is a shit job that noone in their right mind wanted to do
IT people who lost their jobs to outsourcing
¯_ (ツ)_/¯
The Kremlin’s useful idiots in the trade unions have managed to weaken our national security, which was their purpose all along even if they’re too idiotic to realise it.
It’s amazing just how misleading “news” headlines are. It’s a temporary closure. The majority of “losses” are voluntary redundancy. FFS, this is just willful misinformation.
The way countries like the UK have so casually closed down/forced out their own industry in favour of just outsourcing the very same industry to countries that, let’s be honest, are a couple of steps from becoming world pariahs, will I feel be seen as one of the great mistakes of the late 20th/early 21st century.
God damn Labour ruining our natonal industries over the last 15 years.
Easy to be Net Zero with 15 million unemployed and the rest on minimum wage zero hours contracts.
That is where we are heading!
They shut down all the coal mines in the 80’s and those communities are all just fine, so I’m sure everyone will pull through and quickly find employment elsewhere. /s
I briefly worked with the environmental health department in port talbot and they told me every year it was a close race between themselves and Belfast as to which was the most polluted area.
tories let china undercut our steel industry for decades
and now it’s like boohoo all labours fault