Hot Seat s
READERS will be aware of the devastating announcement on January 19 that Tata Steel will begin a formal consultation that could result in up to 2,800 job losses in its UK operations.
Employing roughly half of Tata’s entire UK workforce, the losses will be felt deepest by Port Talbot and its neighbouring communities. The experience will be traumatic for so many families and, indeed, for Wales.
Tata’s decision to push ahead with job losses in Port Talbot is catastrophic and will annihilate Wales’ steel industry. Meanwhile, the Westminster government has allowed the industry to wither on the vine with completely inadequate investment, investing a mere £500m when counterparts in France and Germany invest billions in their steel manufacturing. The Welsh Government, who have known how precarious the site has been for years, are also not without blame, failing to take action to do everything it possibly can to prevent what is now coming to pass.
To allow the destruction of the industry is unconscionable. Governments in Wales and England must ask themselves now whether they are comfortable with losing the ability to produce steel from scratch and become the only country in the G20 unable to produce virgin steel.
Steel is a strategic resource and pervasive in our everyday lives – from the white goods in our homes, to the cars we drive and the buildings we work in. Steel is all around us.
It is not a luxury resource, and problematic though it is for climate change, we still need it by the tonne if we want a cleaner, greener economy. It will be used in wind turbines, in solar panels, and in the rail lines that are critical to decarbonisation and wellpaid, highly-skilled jobs.
If we’re going to safeguard this vital industry and protect our control over this resource, we must renationalise it.
It is not too late for the government to step in.
But it shouldn’t stop there. This should be the beginning of a shift towards locally and worker-owned businesses in Wales that mean the livelihoods of our communities do not rest upon the whims of companies a million miles away.
Plaid Cymru believes Wales’ most important asset is our people and our workforce. We have an opportunity here to do things differently – the Welsh Labour and Tory Westminster governments must listen.