Monday 22 February 2010
Wednesday 17 February 2010
150 years of Steel Making
After 150 years, is this the end of steel making in this country?
Corus will be moth balled with the loss of 1600 jobs and once again the Teeside company's future lies in the balance.
I have already experienced some difficulty in buying some types of steel from suppliers and have been told that overseas manufactures give priority to larger consumers of steel like China and in some cases it is hardly worth bothering with the UK.
As long as the UK can purchase cheap products from abroad most people will have little worries about where steel comes from. But if the political climate changes, if overseas suppliers become less cooperative, if any form of sanctions are applied to the UK then we will have very serious difficulties. Setting up new steel plants and finding the skills to operate them will take a long time and will be extremely difficult if not impossible.
Steel is vital to manufacturing, many services and our defence systems; the navy no longer use wooden ships!
Given the choice of pumping billions of pounds into our banks or securing our steel making ability I think its a no brainer!
Our government needs to wake up, smell the coffee, steel is vital to our future prosperity and safety.
Corus will be moth balled with the loss of 1600 jobs and once again the Teeside company's future lies in the balance.
I have already experienced some difficulty in buying some types of steel from suppliers and have been told that overseas manufactures give priority to larger consumers of steel like China and in some cases it is hardly worth bothering with the UK.
As long as the UK can purchase cheap products from abroad most people will have little worries about where steel comes from. But if the political climate changes, if overseas suppliers become less cooperative, if any form of sanctions are applied to the UK then we will have very serious difficulties. Setting up new steel plants and finding the skills to operate them will take a long time and will be extremely difficult if not impossible.
Steel is vital to manufacturing, many services and our defence systems; the navy no longer use wooden ships!
Given the choice of pumping billions of pounds into our banks or securing our steel making ability I think its a no brainer!
Our government needs to wake up, smell the coffee, steel is vital to our future prosperity and safety.
Thursday 11 February 2010
Selling our Inheritance
Now Cadbury has been sold to Kraft the inevitable job losses have happened.
Sadly,gone are those times when company owners put the welfare of their workers first. I am not saying that owners should not sell their business but when a business has grown to the point when it becomes part of the fabric of a community, it is vital to protect the community, workers, patents and processes that can be lost forever.
If any company endangered its workforce through dangerous practices or damaged the environment, the might of the law would come done hard on its owners.
But if a major company supporting a community is sold with potential devastating effect, the top management walk away rich whilst the workers and the community suffer, families often destroyed, businesses collapse, services diminished. This in my view is just as bad as breaching health and Safety laws or polluting a river.
It just should not be allowed to happen!
Sadly,gone are those times when company owners put the welfare of their workers first. I am not saying that owners should not sell their business but when a business has grown to the point when it becomes part of the fabric of a community, it is vital to protect the community, workers, patents and processes that can be lost forever.
If any company endangered its workforce through dangerous practices or damaged the environment, the might of the law would come done hard on its owners.
But if a major company supporting a community is sold with potential devastating effect, the top management walk away rich whilst the workers and the community suffer, families often destroyed, businesses collapse, services diminished. This in my view is just as bad as breaching health and Safety laws or polluting a river.
It just should not be allowed to happen!
Wednesday 10 February 2010
Friday 5 February 2010
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