Up to 1000 jobs secured at Rotherham and Stocksbridge
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Privateer Sanjeev Gupta finds £50M to restart steel manufacturing
“Sheffield TUC welcomes the announcement this week that Liberty Steel plants at Rotherham and Stocksbridge will reopen and begin making steel again” said Martin Mayer, Secretary Sheffield TUC. “This ends a long period of acute uncertainty for steel workers-many of whom are Community and UNITE members- who have been stood down on 80% pay for months”
According to the Guardian, the owner of Liberty Steel has pledged to restart its plants in Rotherham and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire this month, saving the “substantial majority” of 1,000 jobs, by pumping £50m in cash into the business. Rotherham’s core electric arc furnace will restart shortly, processing scrap metal, whilst the £50M would also support its Stocksbridge plant, which makes steel components for the aerospace and energy industry.
“Whilst this new injection of funding is really good news, we should not forget that the precarious private funding problems of Sajeev Gupta’s empire were the cause of the closures in the first place” says Martin Mayer “The collapse of Greensill Capital pulled the plug on Liberty Steel UK, which is a shocking indictment of private sector ownership and control of such a key strategic industry. These are viable plants – even with high energy prices – and it is desperately important that they are kept open. Many hundreds of good unionised jobs depend on them, but so too does our local and national economy. Great Britain needs a strong and secure steel industry in order to prosper. Let’s hope Mr Gupta’s private empire can deliver that going forward from now on”, said Martin Mayer.