News
17 July 2024
Main image: Climate and workers rights groups will hold a demonstration outside Tata Steel HQ in London in support of steelworkers and a just transition. © Kristian Buus / Greenpeace
Today (22 July), climate and workers’ rights groups including Greenpeace UK, Extinction Rebellion, Green New Deal Rising and Community Trade Union came together to hold a demonstration outside Tata Steel HQ in London in support of steelworkers.
Tata Steel’s Port Talbot steelworks, one of the UK’s main virgin steel producers, is facing potential mass job losses, which could have a negative impact on the community.
Under the new government there’s an opportunity to renegotiate for a fairer and greener transition to a better way of making steel that benefits both workers and the environment.
With negotiations over the future of the steelworks still ongoing, a coalition of organisations has sent a letter to the UK government and Tata Steel calling on them to meet the steelworkers’ union demands.
They ask Tata and the UK government to work on a plan for a transition to greener processes that will help retain workers’ skills and preserve the UK’s steel making capability.
The coalition, which also includes the New Economics Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Medact and War on Want, said in the letter that ‘high grade green steel production is crucial for building a green economy. We need green steel – including primary steel – for building wind turbines, railways, and zero emission vehicles. Closing down the blast furnaces without replacement will simply offshore our emissions and leave us reliant on importing dirty steel.’
The letter goes on to say: ‘we urgently need a green transition in our manufacturing industries to meet our climate goals. But there will be no green transition without proper investment. And there will be no green transition without our workers and their unions.’
In their letter, the organisations are calling on the UK government and Tata to meet the demands of the steelworkers’ unions.
One option for making green steel that is rapidly advancing around the world – but not yet in the UK – would be to use hydrogen to maintain virgin steel production and safeguard jobs.
But pursuing the different options available would need government investment and Tata Steel’s commitment to a just transition.
‘We are out here today to tell Tata Steel and the government that climate justice and worker justice must go hand in hand. We firmly support the workers’ demands for a transition that secures green steel production that’s fit for the future, whilst protecting their jobs.
‘Tata Steel’s current plan would see thousands of jobs lost, and be devastating for communities in South Wales and beyond. We have seen from the disastrous closure of coal mines in the 1980s the lasting effect these decisions can have when they don’t have workers and communities at their heart.
‘We urge Tata Steel and the government to heed the warnings of the past and make the most of the job opportunities presented by cutting-edge, clean technologies. They must meet the steelworkers’ unions’ demands because tackling the climate crisis needs to go hand in hand with unlocking economic opportunities for communities like Port Talbot.’PAUL MOROZZO
Greenpeace UK climate campaigner
Greenpeace UK has outlined its core demands; it wants the government and Tata Steel to fund the transition to new approaches such as hydrogen-based steelmaking.
It wants jobs and communities reliant on the steel industry to be protected, to avoid the devastating impacts seen in former mining areas.
Greenpeace is calling for ‘proper funding for a just transition to a green economy’, to ensure fair compensation and support for workers in high-carbon industries.
It also wants the government to draw up a proper Plan for Steel for the UK to support transition of the industry to a green and economically sustainable future.
60+ climate groups call on incoming government to fund just transition for North Sea workers.
TUC: Public transport upgrade for net zero targets could deliver a £52 billion productivity boost by 2030.
World’s electric utilities companies are progressing towards a renewable energy transition – but pace of change is too slow.
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