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From The Socialist newspaper, 27 January 2016
Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs
The blast furnace at Redcar steelworks, photo by Jeff Pardoen (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
Rudi Abdallah
Skilled steelworkers, recently made redundant, could apparently face punishing benefit sanctions - for refusing to seek low-paid work which doesn't use their skills.
2,200 workers lost their jobs when the SSI steelworks in Redcar, North Yorkshire closed last October. Redcar's Labour MP Anna Turley told parliament that job centres have reprimanded steelworkers for not applying to shops and bars.
Claimants are meant to have a 13-week window to apply for similarly high-skilled work. Yet Turley says they've been ordered to apply for lower-skilled jobs only two weeks in.
Reportedly, one apprentice with nearly three years' experience was told "he should get a job in a bar". Of course, serving beer is what logically follows years of training in steelmaking.
The Department for Work and Pensions denies this has occurred. But the workers shouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
Slashed
Since last summer, profit-hungry firms have slashed nearly 5,000 jobs. Tata, SSI and others claim they are unable to contend with a cocktail of issues, ranging from high energy costs to cheap Chinese steel.
Across the country, beleaguered steelworkers have been betrayed by callous Tories, uninterested in helping working class people - who make all the riches they and their mates own.
In a shocking example of double standards, the Tories supported Gordon Brown bailing out the greedy banks that wrecked the economy in 2007. But they have refused to intervene here, claiming the situation is beyond their control.
Nationalise steel under the democratic control of workers and the community. Steelworkers are blameless. Public ownership would return their dignity, and retain valuable skills.
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The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
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- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
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In The Socialist 27 January 2016:
Socialist Party news and analysis
Housing: smash the Tory wrecking bill
Davos summit: a broken capitalist system
Google pays pittance for avoiding £2bn tax
Red doors and wristbands scandal
Steelworkers may face benefit cut-off for not seeking bar jobs
Oscars snub black artists: fight racism and austerity in the arts
Labour councillor smears TUSC policy as 'BNP'
Top tweets: #TraditionallySubmissive
Teachers under attack
Teaching: a perfect storm is brewing
Teachers need national strategy for a national struggle
A day in the life of a teacher and mother
International socialist news and analysis
New wave of protests in Tunisia
India: student death exposes caste oppression
What we think
Tories 'Prevent' civil liberties
Council cuts and the fight in Labour
Labour councillor suspended for fighting cuts
Dave Nellist's byelection appeal to Jeremy Corbyn: 'let's discuss how to fight the cuts'
Labour election post-mortem: nothing to report!
The dark arts of Labour's right
Councillors must fight to defend our services
'People's budgets' and local democracy
Lewisham: no backsliding in council cuts fight!
Workplace news and analysis
"I have left work many times in tears" - a council worker
Trade union bill will stretch resources and limit action
Birmingham teachers strike to resist academy attack
Care services under threat in Haringey
Readers' comment
The end for deep coal mining jobs in Britain
Obituary: Dean Meehan 1962-2016
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Protesting against closure of Huddersfield A&E
Coventry children's services closure protest
New Socialist Party branch fights against St Austell austerity
Socialist Party discusses the fight for socialism
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