Scotland’s last two major steelworks are to close with the loss of about 400 jobs, the owners are expected to confirm next week. The move is a devastating blow to the country’s economy and a significant milestone in the decline of its once-proud industrial heritage.
Tata Steel is expected to confirm hundreds of jobs at its steel mills in Dalzell and Clydebridge and will be among 1,200 being lost across the UK next week. The move would effectively end steelmaking in Scotland. The firm is also believed to be preparing to announce cuts at its Scunthorpe site as union leaders urged both the UK and Scottish governments to intervene.
Alex Salmond, the former first minister, said UK ministers must be “prepared to make an intervention” at the Tata Steel plants. “Does he [David Cameron] actually want to be the prime minister who presides over the total, absolute removal of the UK steel industry? Because if he doesn’t want to be remembered as that then the time to act is now,” he said.
In 2012, Tata Steel’s Dalzell steelworks in Motherwell lost out in a bid to supply material for the new Forth Crossing. Transport Scotland’s £1.6 billion road bridge instead used 37,000 tons of Chinese, Polish and Spanish steel. At the time, Mr Salmond came under fire for not using the Scots company. Kezia Dugdale, the Scottish Labour leader, said that “if the reports are true, it could signal the end of the steel industry in Scotland”. She added: “That would not only be the end of an era, it would be devastating for the workers, families and the local economies.”
Ms Dugdale said that both governments must support the workers and the industry, warning that “those involved cannot be left to fend for themselves”.
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Tata yesterday declined to comment on “rumour and speculation” ahead of an expected announcement on Tuesday. However, it released a statement which said: “We’ve made a number of structural changes to our UK business over the last months and years to make us more competitive. Like all companies we continue to review the performance of our business.”
This announcement comes almost exactly a year after Tata Steel announced plans to sell its Long Products division, which employed thousands of workers at several UK sites, including 330 in Scotland.
The news emerged as unions, business leaders and ministers met in Rotherham to discuss the crisis gripping the industry amid plunging prices and cheap imports. Unions lobbied UK business secretary Sajid Javid after the closure of the SSI steelworks plant in Redcar, Teesside, with the immediate loss of 1,700 jobs and thousands more threatened in the supply chain.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of Community, which represents steel workers, said the Tata announcement would be “extremely worrying news for all those who may be affected. We will be seeking further discussions with Tata Steel to understand the full detail, examine alternatives that may safeguard jobs and uphold our principle of opposing compulsory redundancies.”
He added: “We will also be seeking a meeting with the Scottish government as a matter of urgency to discuss what support they can offer to Tata Steel’s Scottish steel mills.”
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Holyrood said it had been in “constant contact” with Tata and the trade unions and was exploring all options.
Tony Burke, assistant general secretary of Unite, said that his union would also be urgently consulting with Tata. “The steel industry is at crisis point,” he said. “Unless the government pursues an industrial strategy with a steel heart, then soundbites like ‘northern powerhouse’ and ‘march of the makers’ will be nothing more than empty rhetoric for communities who rely on skilled jobs in steel and manufacturing.”
On the scrapheap
Lanarkshire’s first steel plant opened in the 1870s and the two works owned by Tata opened soon after. In 1957, Ravencraig opened its doors but thousands lost their jobs when the now privatised British Steel closed the Gartcosh works in 1986. Ravenscraig, which once employed more than 12,000 people, closed 10 years later. The site was demolished and the process, which effectively ended the industrial era in Scotland, took just six seconds.