the union for steel, wire and White Goods workers

President, Congress, Michael Leahy, Community, moving motion 20.

General Secretary Michael J. Leahy speaking at the TUC

This motion is very close to my heart.

I’ve been involved with the steel industry for over 40 years.

I’ve worked in and around communities that have felt the warmth of molten steel for generations.

I’ve seen the good times and the bad times but we’ve always lived to fight another day.

This time I fear we may not survive.

We have with us here today a delegation of representatives from Corus Teesside Cast Products.

Community Union members from Teesside Cast Products

Their works has been under threat since 8^th May.

That was the day they found out that a multi-national consortium had ripped up their contract that they had to take 80 per cent of their steel.

That was the day Corus started a 90-day consultation.

And since that day, an entire community has been on tenterhooks as the fate of the plant hangs in the balance.

Across the country, fellow steelworkers have been hit hard by this downturn.

In Corus alone, five thousand of them have been made redundant.

Steelworks are a fundamental part of working life. The blast furnaces glow right at the heart of the community.

The steelworks on Teesside supports thousands of jobs in and around Middlesbrough.

The port would die without their steel leaving its docks.

And across the UK steel reaches into every aspect of our lives. From the tin of beans on the supermarket shelf, to the ferry crossing the Mersey today.

Millions of tonnes of steel pass up and down the length and breadth of Britain every year – in the automotive industry, in defence, in aerospace, construction, food and drink.

Quality steel produced to rigourous standards is readily available to our manufacturers and our builders from the steel plants dotted around Britain.

But Congress - I fear that the future of our steel industry is under serious threat. And if steel disappears, I think it would only be a matter of time before what remains of our manufacturing industry will follow.

Steel is crucial to a successful economy. Steel is tangible; steel has a price.

Steel is not like the pieces of paper that the bankers traded and got us into this mess. Steel creates wealth; it creates jobs.

It brings in revenue to the Treasury. It builds our schools and hospitals.

This is why I am making this appeal today.

SOS. Save our Steel.

The community union delegation and the Save Our Steel banner

This appeal is to the Government – it must do all it can to save our steel.

We’ve heard about the government’s new industrial activism – better late than never.

But it is crucial that this activism goes beyond words and rhetoric.

It must mean effective policies and investment to create a sustainable, green steel industry.

And at this time of crisis, the Government must act immediately.

We welcome the bringing forward of infrastructure programmes and the car scrappage scheme.

But that alone may not be enough.

Our brothers and sisters in Europe have benefited from extensive short-time working schemes.

While steelworkers have lost their jobs in the UK; elsewhere they have at least remained in employment – ready to live to fight another day.

I’m calling now, on behalf of Teesside, on behalf of steel communities everywhere, on behalf of manufacturing as a whole – hear our SOS –

Save our Steel. SAVE TEESSIDE.