Strike to save steel jobs

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by Ricky Houston glomerate of finance houses STEEL workers will strike on October 22 in a one-day action called by the TUC Steel Committee against threats by British Steel [BSC] of more plant closures.

With BSC losses rising and likely to be over £300 million. this year, steel bosses have warned that closures are likely. Ravenscraig [Scotland] and Redcar [Teesside] are the plants most at risk.

The steel union leaders' main demand is import controls. ISTC leader Bill Sirs has complained especially about steel from Bulgaria, Rumania, Spain, Korea, and South Africa. The Labour Party has called for a total ban on imports.

Meanwhile, US steel bosses - supported by US steel unions - are demanding measures to stop British steel exports to the US.

It'a the same more or less all round the world: steel industries in crisis, and the union leaders in each country blaming it on the workers of some other country producing too much steel!

But a spiral towards protectionism | would help workers nowhere. The steel crisis is a crisis of capitalism world-wide.

In Britain, there has been a drastic decline of steel-using industries like cars (down 50% since 1972), construction (down 40%), and mechanical engineering. The decline of steel bas gone in parallel. In 1970 the industry had 260,000 workers, making 28 million tonnes. Now it has 94,000. The capacity is 14 million tonnes, but production is running at only 64% of capaeity.

The trend is the same everywhere else. EEC steel is running at 60% of capacity, the US industry at 40%. Even Japan has production 11% down on 1980.

In the US, 150,000 steelworkere are laid off, 40,000 on short time. France's steel workforce has been cut 37% since 1976, West Germany's 17%, the Nethexlands' 10%. Belgium's has been cut 12% since 1978, Italy's 10%.

Import controls are no answer to this world crisis - and any effect they do have will mean suffering for the world's worst-off steelworkers, in countries like Korea and Brazil.

An answer to the international crisis has to be an international answer - a workers' plan for the industry, starting off with work. sharing under workers' control with no loss of pay, and enforced by occupation of plants threatened with closure.

Comrade Hodge outlined the ineffectiveness of the various joint bodies supposed to represent different councils - the Association of Municipal Authorities and the London Boroughs