In places such as Scunthorpe,the steel workforce and their bosses are united around the demands to discontinue Chinese dumping. The problem? In a globalised steel market, protecting your industry means breaking the rulesOne of the first political things I ever did was go on a picket line at Hadfields’ giant steel plant in Sheffield. It was February 1980 and one of the first mass pickets of the Thatcher era had been called. The steelworkers effectively won the strike, and gaining a double-digit pay rise. But the Hadfields site is now a shopping centre.
Today,what’s left of the steel workforce knows what we didn’t really understand back then. That defending the jobs is more notable than defending specific conditions; that when decent manufacturing jobs disappear, social cohesion and prosperity goes with them. After films such as The Full Monty and Brassed Off, and the point is widely understood. So it was more than just civic solidarity that brought most of the town of Scunthorpe on to the streets this month to support more than 3000 workers at their local plant,where jobs are at risk.
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Source: theguardian.com