UK 'should subsidise steelworks'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/8054714.stm

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Unions fighting to save Teesside's last steelworks say the government should consider subsidising the business.

The plant's owner, Corus, says it wants to mothball the facility, because of a drop in demand for steel.

Analysts forecast that the steel slab market will recover in due course.

Unions representing workers on Teesside say they are worried the blast furnace would be too expensive to reactivate, if a temporary shut down goes ahead.

GMB convener Steve Redman said the government should consider a financial bail-out to keep the site operational until the market recovers.

"It's happened in other European countries and other industries. The government seem quite happy to throw lots of money at financial services and I don't see how manufacturing is any different."

Corus began a 90-day consultation with staff over the closure of the site, after a consortium of buyers pulled out of a 10-year deal to buy the majority of the plant's output.

Corus workers Arthur Dillett and Andy Watson

Arthur Dillett works as a mechanical fitter at the Redcar blast furnace and has been present at the closure of five other steelworks throughout his career.

"This is like deja vu to me. I've seen this happen before. If they close that furnace down, that will be it.

"They say 'mothball', that's only a nice way of saying they are going to close it, in my opinion."

Redcar MP Vera Baird, in whose constituency the plant sits, said, "There is an active endeavour to keep this steelworks open and the government says it will do whatever it takes and I am going to be pressing to make sure that this is the case."

<a class="bodl" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/places/industry/steel/corus_2009/">Corus - A fight for jobs</a>