Workers have protested outside Port Talbot’s steel plant in a show of support for the industry.
It came after owner Tata’s announcement that 2,800 jobs will go, mainly from the south Wales town.
Plans include the shutting down and dismantling of its two primary steelmaking blast furnaces in 2024, to be replaced by an electric arc furnace that produces “green” steel.
I know exactly what your community (assuming you live there) is going through. Where I live, everyone is employed by the oil and gas industry. We’ve been fighting about it for years.
In that case, my sympathies go out to you and those around you also.
There’s no question that we need to fight the climate problem, and there are a plethora of ways we can do that, that are sustainable not just for the environment, but for the families that live in these communities across the globe.
This protest here, and no doubt others elsewhere, is not at all about Tata’s decision to switch to producing ‘Green’ steel. (Though frankly this is something of a fantasy anyhow, when looking at the energy costs they will have with the new arc furnaces, and how they are being powered/from where) This is about a corporation taking handouts from a government designed to, in some small part, ensure that jobs are safeguarded and then turn around and announce that they will be cutting a considerable portion of their workforce anyway.
Tata had a number of options that wouldn’t have let to this and would still have ended in the steel production in South Wales being produced more sustainably, but they chose not to do that. Some would argue that them seeking only profits with little regard for human lives is well within their rights as a private corporation, and they would be correct, but I would also argue that is morally bankrupt and worthy of protest.