Partner Article

Save Our Steel march sends a ?powerful message? to Government

Up to 5,000 people marched through Redcar on Saturday for the ‘Save Our Steel’ demonstration, sending a “powerful message” to the government.

The protests come after a consortium recently pulled out of a ten-year contract with ailing steel works Corus, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.

Speaking at the rally, Bob Stainthorpe, deputy chairman of the multi-union committee at the Teeside plant, said: “It just shows the public support we have. People come from all over the country to be here, and it tells us that we are not alone.”

He added: “We have sent out a powerful message today. It would be an absolute tragedy if nothing was done to save us.”

The Corus worries are a reflection of the steel industry, with a lack of demand meaning companies have to reduce their output.

Hope to retain skills

Ian Rodgers, Director of the trade association UK Steel, said: “On behalf of the trade sector as a whole there are three broad things we have been asking for from the government.

“Firstly on trade credit insurance, the three companies that provide trade credit for insurance have largely pulled out of the market now and this is a major impediment to trade, particularly as we begin to emerge from a recession.

“The second thing is availability of credit from the banks. There is still quite a lot of evidence from surveys that credit isn’t getting through to businesses, particularly smaller businesses.

“Where we have drawn a complete, total blank with government is assistance for short time working.

“As companies lay people off because they have needed to reduce capacity and output, we want to retain those skills but we can’t continue to employ them until the market picks up.

“We were looking to government for assistance to tide employees, not companies, over during this period before the market returns, possibly linked to training.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .