Tata Steel, who own the South Wales plant, intend to scrap the first of two blast furnaces at the end of next month but Labour said ministers were not moving fast enough
Steelworkers made redundant in Port Talbot must be given an urgent guarantee of job support and training, Labour have demanded.
Tata Steel, who own the South Wales plant, intend to scrap the first of two blast furnaces at the end of next month. But Shadow Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said ministers were not moving fast enough to ensure axed workers are helped into new jobs.
She said: “Thousands of jobs are at risk in Port Talbot and steel communities across south Wales because Conservative ministers have failed to act, with devastating economic shockwaves that will reverberate for decades.”
Six months ago Tory Welsh Secretary David TC Davies announced he would chair a “transition board” with access to £100million to help the thousands affected by Tata’s decision to scrap blast furnaces, replacing them with electric arc furnaces. But Ms Stevens branded the body a “talking shop”.
And writing for Mirror online, Ms Stevens said the body had “met just five times since being formed, set up formed two sub-committees and achieved little else.”
“Labour doesn’t want to see a single job go at the site and we strongly support the efforts Trades Unions continue to make to get the best deal for workers,” she wrote. “But Ministers must get urgent plans in place to protect workers and their communities in the event of redundancies.”
Labour called for dedicated employment advisors to be placed in the community to coordinate and deliver support for those affected. And they said a separate fund should be established to pay for retraining support. Up to 3,000 direct jobs are expected to be lost across South Wales as a result of the furnaces’ closure – with thousands more jobs at risk in the wider supply chain.
Labour has also committed to invest up to an additional £2.5bn – on top of the Government’s planned £500 million – in the UK steel industry during the next Parliament if it wins the general election.
Party figures have urged Tata not to make any irreversible decisions before the election. Ms Stevens said: “Our steel fund will ensure the future of the industry will be fuelled by the skills, talent and ambition of Welsh steelworkers and we have repeatedly said no irreversible decisions should be made before a general election. Labour doesn’t want to see a single job go at the site, but Conservative Ministers must up their game and prepare at much greater speed to protect workers and communities. Our jobs support and training guarantee offers workers reassurance that we will have their backs whatever happens.”
‘Labour will have TATA workers’ backs whatever happens’
By Jo Stevens, Shadow Welsh Secretary
We are approaching a grim milestone for the UK steel industry and the Welsh economy.
The closure of blast furnaces at Port Talbot steel threatens to rip the heart out of communities across South Wales, with economic reverberations lasting for decades.
Almost 3,000 direct jobs are at stake, with the true total being significantly higher due to the impact it will have on the supply chain. The businesses that depend on the steelworks, from car manufacturers to fabricators, to the local cafés and hairdressers, will struggle with the impact of a large-scale redundancy cliff-edge. A leaked, UK government-commissioned report has recently revealed that the total direct and indirect jobs lost could be as high as 12,000.
I grew up a few miles from Shotton in North East Wales, where I saw my area scarred by the loss of 6,500 jobs at the steel works in 1980 – still the largest industrial redundancy on a single day in Western Europe. It totally decimated the area. Nearly everyone at my school had family who worked in the steel works and the supply chain. The impact of those mass redundancies was felt for decades, all those skills and the potential of my generation just wasted. We cannot allow this to happen again to Port Talbot and across our steel community.
That’s why Labour has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the future of UK steel. Labour has committed to invest up to £2.5bn – on top of the Government’s planned £500 million – in the UK steel industry over the next Parliament to ensure that the future of the industry is powered by the skills, talent and ambition of Welsh steelworkers. We have repeatedly called for no irreversible decisions to be made about the site before a general election.
That offer is an iron-clad commitment, and if we are privileged enough to be elected to serve as the next UK government, we will deliver it. The cavalry is coming, but with Rishi Sunak squatting in Downing Street, the closure of the blast furnaces could take place before a general election.
In the meantime, the Tories look set to economically abandon vast swathes of Wales. The Welsh Secertary chairs a Transition Board with access to £100m to support workers and the local economy. He has said time and time again that “no one will be left behind” if they lose their job.
But he is failing to put his money where his mouth is. In the six months since he formed his Transition Board, he has held five meetings, formed two sub-committees and done precious little else.
Labour doesn’t want to see a single job go at the site and we strongly support the efforts Trades Unions continue to make to get the best deal for workers. But Ministers must get urgent plans in place to protect workers and their communities in the event of redundancies. That is why today, I am calling on the government to back Labour’s job support and training guarantee to cover any and all redundancies from TATA.
Using a small portion of the £100m already available, we would hire dedicated employment advisors in affected areas to coordinate and deliver support through the Transition Board. They would act as a consistent point of contact for those made redundant, setting up dedicated employment hubs and job fairs, matching private sector vacancies with those who have relevant skills and identifying gaps in support on an ongoing basis.
We would also make a further funding pot available from that £100 million that would be bid into for retraining based on a needs assessment of the workforce undertaken by these employment advisors. This would help fund anything beyond what is already funded via existing entitlements.
These are the first steps to ensuring that the UK government proactively grips this challenge; a down-payment on the longer-term work of the Transition Board to deliver economic regeneration in the area. If the worst happens and jobs are lost, Labour wants to see UK ministers providing the support and retraining that will be needed to ensure these highly-skilled workers find their feet after a difficult period.
Time and time again, this government has failed to grip obvious problems before they overtake us, and it is working people that always pay the price. Labour’s job support and training guarantee means we will have TATA workers’ backs, whatever happens.