Veteran steel workers 'thought they had a job for life'

Bob Hudson, of the Yorkshire and Humberside TUC, worked with 900 staff who lost their jobs last year and said although there are signs of improvement, any major changes in Government policy could set them back.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Shadow Monetary Policy Committee yesterday, he described the emotional scenes as veteran workers lost careers they believed they had for life.

"Last January, we lost 900 people," he said. "They were mostly married with families and mortgages, their whole life was totally devastated.

"There were men crying in my office, some had their jobs for 30 years.

"To lose that when you think you have a job for life, it is very hard to understand.

"But as quick as the steel industry is hit by recession, when confidence returns to the economy it comes back quick and we are starting to see it coming back.

"However we are not out of the woods yet and it is too early to be making policy changes now. If interest rates are put up at this point it could get worse, things are very much on a knife edge."

The MPC voted to maintain interest rates at their current level, 0.5 per cent, and also voted in favour of the Bank of England providing a further 25bn of quantitative easing – new money to boost the economy – to aid the recovery should it stumble during the coming months.

Committee chairman Jonathan Oxley said: "I think getting view from the steel industry, which has been very hard hit, was valuable for everyone."