Michael Sheen: The Fight for My Steel Town

Unmistakable.

One of the most famous skylines in Wales -

a view that has been captured on film countless times,

a landscape that speaks of Wales' rich industrial heritage.

I have been right inside the heart of it today and it's

like being in the most beautiful place I've ever been.

But the steel works is under threat,

with hundreds of jobs already lost.

I've just been made redundant.

Tell you what I'll do.

There you go, there's my life over.

There is a question mark hanging over the future of steel-making

in Port Talbot, and indeed across Wales and most of the UK.

It does feel like your whole world is collapsing around you

and there's nothing you can do.

Watching the despair on my husband's face.

But it's this living in limbo at the moment, that's the killer.

I've been following the fate of the steel works for months -

meeting workers and those affected in the wider community.

What's the atmosphere been like over the last few months?

It's been pretty bad.

Businesses along here are exceptionally worried.

So how did it get to this

and what can be done to help save it?

I was brought up in this town.

I know what it means for the steelworks to be

right there at the heart of all your comings and goings.

The two feed off each other -

the steelworks is the town and the town is the steelworks.

I can't imagine what life would be like here without it.

Port Talbot, south Wales.

Home to 37,000 people and Britain's largest steel works,

employing more than 4,000.

Anyone who's grown up in Port Talbot has grown up with the steelworks.

The light that never goes out,

the cloud that billows out from the chimneys and stacks.

In fact, when I was a boy I thought that's where clouds came from.

It was quite a frightening place during the day -

dark and malevolent.

But at night-time it was a comfort of a place.

You could see it from the hills and the mountains around.

All the lights, the flames.

So it's a complicated relationship - it was frightening,

it was comforting, it put food on the families' tables

but it also exacted a high price at times.

It's like the north star for the town.

So many families' lives revolve around its axis.

And there are not many families in this town who are not connected

in some way by family members working there,

or having worked there, including my own.

Well, the first person was your grandfather, Ivor Thomas.

He went into the steel company.

Do you know what he did in there?

Well, they maintained the furnaces.

So he'd come home sometimes with no eyebrows, no eyelashes.

Blister on the end of his nose.

And then you worked there.

I worked in the drawing office.

I was a junior secretary.

I worked there for about 18 months until we got married in 1961.

Dad, you worked as part of the supply chain?

Yeah, that's right - in the supply chain.

I was working for a mechanical engineering company,

specialist company, and we did works for Port Talbot Steel,

which was the Abbey Works then.

So our family is fairly typical?

The whole of the town, the whole of the community

is connected to the steel works, either directly or indirectly?

Yes.

Oh, yes.

Every household, practically.

And everyone wanted their sons and daughters to get jobs in there.

Because then it was considered a job for life.

Steel-making has never been an easy way to eke out a living,

with searing temperatures and danger lurking everywhere.

But more recently, the workforce here has faced new challenges -

an industry which has been losing millions and millions of pounds,

an industry struggling to cope with global competition,

an industry in crisis.

Then, in January, the first hammer blow to the steelworks.

Tata has confirmed it's shedding another 1,050 jobs

in a fresh blow to the beleaguered steel industry.

The news that 750 of those jobs will be lost here.

Unions have accused ministers of not doing enough

to protect the industry from cheap Chinese imports.

Owners Tata said the action was necessary

for the survival of the business.

It's the middle of February, and, as the news begins to sink in,

a group of steelworkers gather at a local rugby club,

where they've agreed to meet me.

How long have you been in the steelworks?

I started my apprenticeship coming on ten years ago now.

Did a four-year apprenticeship, then, in the cold mill.

Since you started ten years ago, has there always been

worries about the situation at the steelworks?

Yeah, I think this time everyone realises it's a lot

more serious than we've had before, like.

I think a genuine concern now for all our future.

There's up to 12,000 contract workers there moving

throughout Port Talbot and Llanwern and other places,

so there's a lot of people directly involved.

But if anything happened to the works, within the community,

you've got all the businesses that are reliant on the wages

coming from there into the community, you know.

What's the kind of atmosphere like now with so much insecurity?

It's quite low.

Everyone's very depressed - waiting.

Down in the dumps.

The atmosphere is quite poor.

At the moment, nobody knows who's gonna be staying and who's going?

If it does happen, if we are the unfortunate ones,

at the end of the day, you've got to have some sort

of living and go where the money is.

It's sad what we're all going through and I think,

without choking up here, it's a reality.

There's nothing else out there for us youngsters.

If I lost my job, I dunno what I'd do.

The only thing I have ever known, my family for generations -

my uncles, brother, all work there -

I dunno what else I would do.

It's all I have done, is steel.

It's really worrying for us.

Two of the workers - father and son Nigel and Scott -

All

invite us back to their home.

They live in Portardawe.

The Bowdens are a proud steel-making family -

90-year-old Cyril, Scott, 28, and Nigel, 54.

I remember the first day in the works, walking

in and all the big machinery and all the cranes going overhead.

It was quite frightening.

Nigel and Julie were married in 1984 - six years

after he joined the steelworks.

Can you see the steel works over there?

All the smoke coming out?

Scott followed in his family's footsteps, and got a job

at Port Talbot when his son Thomas was one year old.

Would you like to work there one day?

Yeah?

Between them, Scott, Nigel and Cyril have clocked up

77 years in the steel industry.

I can't see it closing entirely.

I just can't see that at Port Talbot.

If it did, it would be desolate, wouldn't it?

Obviously.

Scott and Nigel now have to wait until March to find out

if they are one of the 750

who will be losing their jobs from Port Talbot.

I just turned 54 last month, so if I was made redundant now

I wouldn't be able to access my pension till I'm 65.

So I'd have to last 11 years with no income,

just a redundancy payment, whatever that's going to be.

So it's a big worry for me at the moment, in that respect.

But I'm also concerned for the likes of Scott.

Obviously I've got to support my partner, my son,

so I'd hopefully get another job what I'm paid now.

So, whether that means moving away I don't know.

Hopefully not - all my family's here.

Father and son pitted against each other.

So you're back in tonight, are you?

I'm back in tonight, yeah, doing a two-day shift.

They work in the same area of the steel works and will be

scored against one another, and their colleagues,

to determine who stays and who goes.

I could have a job and my dad could not have a job.

I would prefer that my dad had a job and I would leave

because he's only got a year left and his retirement,

I'm young enough to find hopefully another job

and start another career.

But where, but where?

Workers - and their unions - have started to fight back.

The campaign to save the steelworks has begun.

Save our steel industry.

Today, they're out in Port Talbot seeking support

for the plant, and the fear of job losses is never far away.

It's at the back of people's minds all the time, at home.

Family and friends are asking you, Have you heard anything,

have you heard anything?

It's that waiting game now for the next few weeks.

It's not just workers like Chris affected by this,

the whole of the town is.

When the steelworks goes through a difficult time,

the community feels its pain.

There's always been that close relationship.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr Gaitskill

had come here to Port Talbot in Glamorgan

to set into motion with the flick of a lever

the latest addition to the Abbey steelworks at Margam -

the largest plant of its kind in Europe.

Port Talbot steelworks was originally called

the Abbey Works, and was opened in its current form in 1951.

The Abbey Works was not just of local or Welsh significance,

it was a part of Britain's programme

of reconstruction of its economy after the war.

There was a big consumer boom in the 1950s.

People wanted to make cars and domestic appliances,

so demand for sheet steel was going through the roof.

The '50s and '60s in Port Talbot were years of real prosperity.

It was renowned as somewhere which had a casino,

it had social clubs.

The first casino in industrial Britain was opened in Port Talbot.

Here the steelworkers are the best paid in Britain.

They live high in a style not normally associated with the Welsh.

Their music also sung by a Welshman, Tom Jones...

I think for a while it had Wales' only 50-metre pool, you know.

There were facilities there you didn't get elsewhere.

At its height, the workforce numbered 20,000.

Today, it's only a fifth of that.

You do sometimes feel as though Britain's traditional industries

are slightly forgotten and nobody really cares anymore

whether we make steel or not.

Well, the people do still think it's important

that Britain manufacturers steel

and they recognise how bound up with that industry

a community like Port Talbot is.

In the words of the king,

this plant will make a valuable contribution to our ability

to maintain our historic position in a free world.

Growing up, the steelworks played a huge part in my life -

always there in the background.

But I've never been inside before, until now.

Tata have agreed to let me in to see for myself how Welsh steel is made.

Yet another personal tie to the steelworks for me.

David and I grew up together.

That is around about 1,200 degree-ish.

Wow.

Just to see the size of it in there then.

It's gonna keep on reducing the thickness now.

As that gets thinner and thinner, it gets longer and longer

ready for the next part of the process.

That looks incredible.

It just looks like something out of another

world, or something.

Oh, here we go.

It's incredible to see this process going on.

It's such a visceral process to watch it happening.

You've got massive temperatures, huge noise, vast machinery

moving and turning.

Water and oil, fire - all the elements.

It's incredibly impressive.

Of course, steel is made the world over now, and it's that global

competition which has contributed to the crisis in British steel -

a problem the industry has been highlighting for months.

We face costs that our competitors don't face,

and that is a result of Government

policy over the years piling on those costs,

but also the rapid rise in Chinese exports of steel that

floods the UK market, the European market and the global

market, and what that does to the global price of steel.

So for the last 15 years we have been warning UK governments,

a series of governments, that policy that it is developing

is going to increase costs to us.

And it's those increased costs which are being

felt most keenly here.

So, we're heading off towards the harbour, are we?

We're going down to the heavy end

now, with the harbour, blast furnace area.

Cos all this kind of piping and ducts, this

is what in Port Talbot we've grown up with seeing all the time.

So being in here and seeing it for the first time at my ripe

old age is quite something.

The boats wait out there until they're ready to come in.

Come into the harbour.

They get offloaded by one of the unloaders.

So that's the raw material coming off there,

coming along that conveyor belt and taken along

to the coke ovens.

That's right.

I've been invited to meet steelworker Graham Rowland,

who's been cataloguing the history of the works.

They were smelting on here during the 12th century,

which is quite unique.

This is the only steelworks in the world, I would say,

that goes back that far.

That still has a steelworks on it.

So, in the 12th century there were monks...

Monks smelting here.

Is that the Abbey Wall?

Yes.

The myth is if the wall falls down the works closes.

Right.

So there's about 20 steelworkers standing around it

constantly at the moment.

Funnily enough we do a little work every now

and again to make sure it stays...

Just to make sure.

You should get a good view of the blast furnace now,

tapping off hopefully.

That's the iron now being produced going into the torpedo.

Just coming out of the blast furnace going into the torp.

I've grown up in the town and had a relationship

with the steelworks at a distance.

So to be actually inside is like being in the heart of the town

and everything I have come to find beautiful, which is the beauty

of heavy industry, I have been right inside the heart of it today,

and so it's like being in the most beautiful place I've ever been.

And the other thing is, walking around and meeting

the people working in here, you can tell there is a real sense

of massive pride about the work they are doing and a real sense

of family about the people here, you get a real sense

of that camaraderie here and the fierce pride

in what they are doing.

We are outside this blast furnace and this is the very heart

of the British steel industry, what is going on in there.

It's been an overwhelming experience, really, to be here.

It's mid-March, and it's D-Day for many of the workers here.

Two months ago, the bombshell dropped that 750 jobs would have

to be lost from the steelworks.

And right at this very moment, inside there, individuals

are learning their fate.

If they do, or don't, have a job working for Tata steel.

This is a week that will shape the lives of many families in Port

Talbot and the surrounding area.

In Pontardawe, it's been an anxious wait for the Bowden family.

Today, Nigel and Scott learn their fate at Tata.

Today you were both finding out about the status

of your jobs at the steelworks, so what's the news?

Thankfully I'm safe.

I heard this morning.

Went down to the steelworks about 20 past nine.

And it was literally within 30 seconds it was all done.

It's the waiting, the waiting's over now.

What about you, Nigel?

Fortunately, I'm safe as well, so we're both

still in the same department.

What's the feeling about the overall picture for the steelworks?

I think people are still very disappointed

in the fact that there's nothing seems to be done

to help the industry.

If the Government don't do something to help the steel industry soon,

then I don't know how long this will last.

I've been there 38 years now and I've never felt

as insecure as I do now.

Even having had the letter to say I've still got a job.

Nigel and Scott are safe - for now.

But other workers have not been so fortunate.

Taking time out from campaigning for the steel industry,

Chris James has also been learning his fate.

I try to be positive during the day but it's caused me some sleepless

nights at the moment.

As soon as I see it, it makes me think about work,

makes me think about the uncertainty, the future.

What does the future hold?

That's the big question at the moment.

Chris has only been employed by Tata for just over a year -

he previously served in the Navy.

This is my medal from Sierra Leone and this is my medal being involved

in the Afghanistan conflict.

I did 15 years in the Navy but no medals after 13 years and I got

three medals in the last two years in service.

In January, Chris's job in the BoS plant,

where iron is made into steel, went - and he was moved

to another department.

But in March he went through the same selection

process as Nigel, Scott and everyone else at the works.

Basically says "I regret to inform you that from the selection process

you remain at risk of redundancy, and obviously your figures..."

Well, because I haven't been there that long I got the fantastic

figure of 0.00, my redundancy money if I was to leave.

I actually got called in a different door,

which pretty much assumed then was bad news.

I was expecting it, it wasn't a shock, but nonetheless having it

there put in front of you is gutting.

It really is.

The steelworks sustains thousands of families

in this area and beyond.

I'm going to meet an expert who can tell me how that impact

is felt right across Wales.

What would you say is the significance of it

for the Welsh economy today?

The first thing is there aren't many jobs like steel left.

Somewhere like Tata will pay everybody double the minimum wage.

And every one of those workers will be making hundreds

of thousands of pounds' worth of steel.

For every single job within Tata, there was another job and a quarter

throughout the rest of the Welsh economy.

That's a very, very high number in terms of supply chains,

the wage spending of those workers.

So with 750 jobs going from here - at Tata, in Port Talbot - what do

you imagine the impact will be for Port Talbot and south Wales?

The first thing is you will lose significant wages in the local

economy, both in the supply chain for Tata itself

and in the businesses

supported by those wages - the plumbers, electricians,

coffee shops, hotels and so on.

There will be significant belt-tightening.

The problem now is there's a longer-term question

about confidence, and what places like Port Talbot will look

like in the longer term.

By the end of March, fears about the future

of Port Talbot were growing.

It became clear that it wasn't just the fate of 750 jobs

which were at stake - it could be the entire future

of the steelworks at Port Talbot.

It's been reportedly losing up to ?1 million a day.

And there are fears that a rescue package could be

rejected by the Tata board.

Alan Coombs is packing to go to Mumbai, where Tata's

headquarters are based, to try to convince them

to accept a rescue package to save the steelworks.

I'm going to go to Mumbai to speak to members of the board to ask them

to have faith in the plan that we put together in Port Talbot.

Alan has worked in the steelworks since he was 16.

He's now a union boss there.

What I'm hoping is that if people have a view and it's not

positive for Port Talbot, we can help change their minds

as well by having a presence there and them understanding that

there's families involved in this - not just this works that closes

and everything's going to carry on as normal,

because if you talk to people in Port Talbot I don't think there's

anybody thinking they'll carry on as normal if the works closes.

In India, Alan joins up with other union bosses and local MP

Stephen Kinnock to lobby the Tata board members ahead of the meeting.

They were very honest in how we'd performed up until now,

saying there's been a load of plans put forward over the years but never

really delivered on anything.

And there was a feeling that they'd given us enough

time and enough money.

Then the news that no-one in Port Talbot was expecting.

The top news story on 5 live this hour - Tata steel

plans to sell its entire UK business, putting the jobs

of thousands of workers at risk, including 4,000 at Port Talbot.

It's understood the Government hasn't ruled out direct

state involvement to try to save the British

arm of Tata steel.

Back in Pontardawe, the announcement has come

as a shock to Scott and Nigel.

The future of UK steel hangs in the balance...

I fear for the future now.

Two weeks ago we found out we were safe, but that didn't last

very long, obviously.

It's obviously irrelevant now.

So just looking now...

It just doesn't look very bright, does it,

the future doesn't look bright.

It Tata can't turn it round, and they're a massive company,

you know, who's going to buy it?

I think if the Government do something and take

some steps with tariffs, energy costs, rates, perhaps invest

in a power plant down there, then it might be viable.

But without any help from the Government it's not.

No.

It's been a roller-coaster couple of months for father and son Scott

and Nigel - and Alan too.

Back from Mumbai, he reflects on a tumultuous couple of days.

I try to put my own feelings on the back burner, so to speak,

but at the end of the day I'm the same as everybody else.

I've got a mortgage, I've got three kids - you think,

what am I going to do?

Come home last night, lying on the bed, 12 o'clock,

and Isobel, my eldest girl, says, "What are you going to do for a job

now, Dad, if this closes?"

This news changed everything.

It was bad enough that 750 jobs were going to be lost

from the steelworks and from the local community,

but now the place is fighting for its very survival.

Save our steel, save our steel.

The political heat is on.

Business Secretary Sajid Javid pays his first visit to Port Talbot,

after criticism he was in Australia

at the time of the crucial board meeting in Mumbai.

In your words, have we got...

Have we got an industry?

The industry is absolutely vital to the future

of the UK industrial sector.

Absolutely vital.

And it's not just Port Talbot up for sale.

Tata's UK business includes smaller plants

in Llanwern, Llanelli and Shotton.

They're all under threat.

Within days, the Business Secretary pays another visit to Port Talbot.

This time he meets with union representatives.

It's a million miles away from where we've been

with the announcement of everything up for sale

and things looking pretty gloomy.

Now we're trying to concentrate on the positive side of things

and hopefully now get a buyer in.

It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride at the moment.

There's a lot of down and a lot of ups as well.

When your emotions are stretched so far in both directions,

it does become a bit difficult.

As we are filming outside the Port Talbot plant,

we are approached by a worker.

I want you to give this to David Cameron

and tell him to wear it with pride,

because I can't - I've just been made redundant.

Ten years of my life down the drain.

How do I explain to my four children and my wife,

like, I no longer work?

How do you survive?

I'm 55 this week.

But do you think someone's gonna give me

a job at the age of 55?

I dunno what the next step is in my life.

Tell you what I'll do - there you go, there's my life over.

Peter, who was a contractor at Tata for ten years driving large

industrial vehicles, invites us to his home in Neath.

These are my two daughters - Nicola and Kayla.

I have been made redundant today.

I don't know what to do now.

How we gonna run two cars and the...and the house?

Not only that...

Devastated.

But there we are, love.

Never mind.

Everything's also changed for Chris and his wife Sian.

They both hoped he would be at the plant

for the rest of his working life.

It does feel like your whole world is collapsing around you

and there's nothing you can do.

Watching the despair on my husband's face,

knowing I can't do anything about it,

it leads then into questions -

him questioning himself,

questioning why he was de-selected, why him?

Chris is hoping there might be another job at the steelworks

he could be moved in to.

But while he waits, he's been told

he finishes his employment with Tata at the end of May.

We can't plan anything at the moment,

that's the frustrating part as well.

So everything's just on hold.

We were looking next year, hopefully,

or maybe later on this year getting a mortgage.

But that's just pie in the sky now.

I don't know when we'll be in a position like this ever again.

There are no good employers out there anymore

that pay a decent wage.

People can look at us and think, well, they're a young couple

who haven't got small children

so it's not going to impact on them that much.

Well, it will impact on us.

It's going to turn our lives upside down.

But it's this living in limbo at the moment, that's the killer.

Watching my husband killing himself every day,

fighting to save an industry that he may not be part of.

Tata directly employs 4,100 people at its Port Talbot

site, and thousands more are employed as contractors.

But its influence can be felt beyond the gates

and in the very heart of the town.

So where are you going next year?

Don't know.

Can I get a coffee please?

Cappuccino?

Latte?

Latte please.

Business is down, definitely down.

Particularly the take-away aspect of the business.

We get a lot of people coming to the back door...

Which is steelworkers basically.

People are afraid.

They're going to start cutting down.

What's the atmosphere been like over the last few months?

It's been pretty bad.

Businesses along here are exceptionally worried.

Myself, because of the business and my husband's job -

he's in the works.

He works in the works.

For me it's two incomes lost.

Yeah.

Has your family got connections with the steel works?

Yeah, they've been in there since 1908.

My great-great-grandfather started in there, his son,

my great grandfather.

My father's in there and my uncle.

They're in there now.

Yeah, and I nearly went in there.

But to be honest with you it's lucky I didn't,

the way it's going in there.

A lot of customers are worried about their jobs -

a heck of a lot of customers.

What are the sort of different feelings

that you've heard people expressing?

There's a lot of uncertainty.

If that goes, it's the town going.

It literally built the town.

It built the Sandfields estate, it's built all the surrounding areas.

A massive amount of people living and working in the town

work in there and rely on it.

Most people in the town,

if they don't actually work in the steelworks themselves,

have a relative, or a friend or a neighbour

who has some kind of connection to it.

But it doesn't just provide jobs here,

it is part of the very essence, the fabric of the town.

It's what makes Port Talbot.

And it has done for generations.

THEY SHOUT

Aberafon Rugby Club are involved in a schools' rugby

and football league in the area,

which has support from the steelmakers.

This club was established in 1876,

and it's formerly with British Steel, Corus,

Tata - they've always been here.

They've always been a fundamental part of the town.

Tata - along with both Corus and British Steel before it -

have a close relationship with the local community.

Their workers do charity work in the area, the company supports

the elderly and they sponsor football and rugby teams.

Thankfully, for Tata Steel,

they provided every single primary school in Port Talbot with kit -

rugby and netball kit.

Boys, we're still tackling up here.

So now, all the children have got beautiful kit

which they designed themselves.

And, without Tata Steel, we just wouldn't be able to run

and provide these children with these opportunities.

WHISTLE BLOWS

Looking around the ground here, 60-70% of the businesses involved

with the rugby club are customers of Tata Steel, and that's how big

the involvement is with these organisations in the area.

The club's always had players from that working community.

Club captain Ian Moore is one of six rugby players

who work at the steelworks.

But he doesn't know for how much longer.

It's horrible, innit?

You don't know your future.

I'm in my mid-30s, got a house, two young children.

It's a frightening time for everyone.

It's your livelihood, at the end of the day.

If that place closes,

basically Port Talbot would be a ghost town.

The local community is also getting behind the campaign

to save the steelworks.

Save our steel.

Today, Alan's watching his daughter play football.

Call 'em, Mill!

I think he's doing a good job like trying to like save it

and he's been going to like loads of like meetings

in London and stuff.

We'd like to go on holidays this summer but we don't know

if we can cos he's away and trying to save Tata Steel.

It's the beginning of April, and Alan and his fellow workers

are doing their best to keep their campaign

in the public eye.

When we walk around the pitch today with a banner,

I'm gonna be proud to be a part of it.

I'm really looking forward to it.

Swansea City are allowing us to go round the pitch

with our Save Our Steel banner.

We are very grateful and hopefully the crowd will support us as well.

Please welcome representatives of the steel industry.

It was amazing, hairs on the back of your neck standing up.

It was emotional walking out onto the pitch

with a standing ovation from the Swansea supporters

and Chelsea supporters.

The policeman, all the players ground staff wishing us well,

clapping us.

It was absolutely amazing - can't thank them enough.

Really shows spirit, and the community is on our side.

Just pushes us now ready for Monday, back into work,

and keep the fight going.

Gives us a lift.

Unbelievable.

The threat of the steelworks closing is a very real concern for people

who live around here,

but potential saviours have begun to emerge.

The first to declare an interest was Liberty Steel,

which has a base in Newport.

The boss is Sanjeev Gupta, who had admitted

his plans to take over Tata were written on the back of an envelope.

But he's now a serious contender.

I have spent the last few weeks endlessly working at this.

I am literally doing nothing else.

We work 16-18 hours every single day.

We have amassed an amazing team, both internally and externally.

And we have been working very, very, very hard.

At that stage, Mr Gupta's plans did not include

the iconic blast furnaces at Port Talbot.

They would be replaced with electric arc furnaces,

which use scrap steel.

He insisted jobs wouldn't be lost as a result.

An arc furnace process, or scrap processing furnace,

is actually more job intensive than a blast furnace.

Because a blast furnace, if you can imagine,

is fairly automated.

Whereas in scrap processing there is a lot of manual element.

It's at least the same number of jobs, generally speaking.

Oh, excellent.

Thank you very much indeed.

Appreciate your help.

Thanks Emma, bye-bye.

But Alan is hoping that the successful buyer

will keep the blast furnaces, and steel making, at Port Talbot.

When you get people like Liberty saying about arc furnaces and that,

I can understand where they're coming from,

but they need to look at the bigger picture

and they need to understand more about the process

and more about what the opportunities are.

So never say never, you don't know.

To be here in any shape and form would be a plus.

But obviously everybody wants it to be exactly the same as it is now.

Alan's off to meet with the head of Tata at Port Talbot

to discuss a proposed management buyout.

Within days, it's confirmed that local businessmen

are backing this proposal, led by Tata boss Stuart Wilkie.

We have a very good plan, a plan that consists of 680 elements,

fully backed by the trade unions, the workforce

and the management within the business.

It's essentially the same plan

rejected by the board of Tata in Mumbai at the end of March.

Steelworkers Scott and Nigel, with their partners Lisa and Julie,

are unclear if they are being asked to invest in the plan.

There's rumours going about ?10,000 each,

but some people can't afford ?10,000.

No, of course they can't.

Do you feel like there's any more security then

or do people feel that they're going to have a job

at the end of the day?

More optimistic.

And even if they do, there might be redundancies anyway.

Might be, yes, there might be more redundancies.

People's more optimistic there now that something could happen.

The UK Government said it would be willing to take a 25% stake in any

rescue of Tata's UK operations.

And the Welsh Government has pledged ?60 million.

So, what can the Welsh Government actually do to help?

What we've put on the table is a package.

A commercial loan to convert one of the lines.

Another ?30 million on top for the...

another lot of ?30 million for environmental improvements

which help with reducing costs.

And more money for skills and training as well.

Now one of the things we're looking at is,

could we do more helping with business rates?

Why is that not something you've felt you couldn't do already?

Well, we control business rates

but there's been historically a limit to what we can do

in terms of competition rules

as to how much business relief we can give.

We are looking at whether there are different ways

of delivering that.

So, both governments have now put forward offers

of support for a new buyer.

The Westminster government has also announced measures aimed at helping

the industry here - such as cutting energy costs and promising

to buy British.

If I could call you all to order.

There are also more details emerging of the planned management buyout.

Lots to discuss at a meeting of union reps.

Today has changed a lot.

This meeting was planned two weeks ago.

Just to give an update.

Obviously with news today coming from government there's a lot more

to talk about than we thought we were going to talk about,

to be honest with you.

There was a lot more positivity than we normally have.

But the reality is there's still a lot of work to do,

with people losing their jobs through redundancies.

So that, rightly so, takes priority over everything.

People are a lot more settled than they were.

So that's got to be good going forward.

The fight to save the steelworks goes on - but it's

too late for Peter.

This is my P45 - that's it now, I'm officially unemployed.

Unemployed, mate.

Never been unemployed.

First time.

Shocking, innit?

Right, where do I go from here?

Kaelagh?

Can you come down here and help me with this CV, love?

Ten years in the steelworks.

Before that I worked in Morrisons for two years.

Before that I was a househusband bringing you up for five years.

Before that I worked in Sony for ten years.

Because I'm a driver, a plant driver, that's what I do.

I drive plant and I use machines.

They'll probably want to know what I done in the steelworks.

I got all these licences.

I suppose that will be something to put on there.

But Peter's licences are no good to him.

They cannot be used outside the steelworks.

You can't live your life dwelling on the past.

You gotta move forward, and the sooner I get these licences

the quicker I can get a job, the quicker I can move forward,

for the sake of me and my family.

Hello, how can I help you?

I got an appointment with John.

OK.

If you take a seat just there I'll let him know that you're here.

Hi, Peter.

Hi, John.

Hi, would you like to join me?

Yeah, brilliant.

He's offered me ?1,500 for various licences,

so I can get three or four licences out of that.

And I was quite surprised that the tickets only take a fortnight.

So, I could be in work within a month.

Yes.

For every story like Peter's there are dozens and dozens more.

There are businesses the length and breadth of south Wales

who rely on the steel plant.

There's something like 90, 100 suppliers to Fairwood Fabrications

throughout south Wales, from Newport to Carmarthen.

They are being affected now in their turnover and the business

they are doing with us.

It's having a huge effect.

Fairwood Fabrications was set up by the current chairman's father.

The business started 37 years ago.

He took his redundancy from what was then Corus and built it up

from there over 37 years.

Up until last December, 80% of the company's

business was with Tata.

We would have between 200 and 250 personnel working for Fairwoods -

the majority of those, 200-plus on site, they would be

on the contract labour, 200-plus on site, they would be

which was maintenance.

Basically, giving them a 24/7 service.

We've lost virtually all our work in Tata and we've lost

over 100 employees.

We are now working at 90 people.

Fairwood is now winning new business and they're confident things

can be turned around.

Early morning, and Chris is joining up with other

steelworkers in Port Talbot.

We're just about to get the bus coming in now, any minute now -

make our mark on London.

What do we want out of today?

The first one is Tata have got to be responsible sellers

and make sure they're doing the right thing.

And the second one is about putting pressure on the Government

to have a proper industrial strategy going forward.

They're heading off for a rally, and joining steelworkers

from across Britain for a march on Parliament.

CAR HORNS HONK, WHISTLES BLOW

You only have to look around, the cars passing.

The UK public are behind us.

We are getting support from the UK public.

Save our steel, save our steel.

Save our steel, save our steel. What I'm doing is I'm phoning people

up and saying you've got to have confidence.

We've got confidence as a government.

When you see all the support coming together from the UK,

it's absolutely unbelievable.

Knowing communities are on our side,

it's something special.

The truth is the Government gets this, that's

why we've offered to invest hundreds of millions of pounds,

take up to 25% stake in any new business.

We get this, I can assure you.

The question now is to make sure if Tata are going to sell

they sell to someone who has a long-term plan

to secure the future.

Everywhere I've gone, and I've been to almost

all the steelworks now,

there are a number of striking features, and one of the most

striking features is the quality of the people that work there.

Stand up and save our steel, stand up and save our steel.

Whilst political parties agree they want to save Port Talbot,

they say big changes will be necessary.

What's the future for the steelworks in Port Talbot,

and the industry generally in Britain?

How do you move forward in a healthy positive way?

The challenge is to make sure that you're not producing steel

that is being produced all over the world.

If you do that, you're competing with people whose costs are lower.

So how do you get around that?

You invest in facilities where the quality is better and then

of course you can make sure that you can pay people more.

The word is now, they're almost back in profit again now.

Shows all kinds of possibilities?

It shows how variable the whole thing

is because the million-pound-a-day loss was on the basis of a real

depression in the price of steel.

I know that a few weeks ago they cut that loss by two thirds,

there's talk now that it's breaking even again.

For any prospective buyer of Tata's steel business there's one massive

hurdle to overcome - pensions.

It's very much in the minds of steelworkers like Nigel,

who had hoped to retire next year.

Everyone's saying the big stumbling block could be

the pensions - the deficit.

Everyone's goal working down there was to have a job for life -

then retire at 60 with a nice pension.

Obviously that's now changed.

My plan is to get to retire at some point with a pension but if that

pension fund is taken away I'll probably be there until I'm 65,

not 60, and have a much smaller pension then.

Workers could face cuts in their pensions, as the company

faces a deficit of ?700 million.

Now, the UK government has announced a month-long consultation

Hell

into the scheme, which goes back to the days of the old British Steel.

Well, one thing is sure, the future of this town and this

community is completely tied up with what happens

to this steelworks.

Not just economically, but in terms of this town's identity.

Who this town is, who these people are.

Port Talbot is facing hundreds of job losses already announced.

Public bodies - like health boards and local councils -

are braced to step in.

The scale of the challenge is huge, the implications for the town

and surrounding area are massive.

We're talking about thousands of jobs and the impact on public

services, the wellbeing of the communities, in a sense,

it's a sort of replay of where we were with pit closures

in the 1980s, it's on that sort of scale.

If the worst was to happen, steelworks to close down.

Is there some kind of Plan B?

We're not contemplating closure of the steelworks.

This isn't a town that gives up.

People are facing challenges and uncertainties but there

is a grim determination to do what they're good at.

And continue to do what they're good at, which is making steel.

That's all workers at the plant want to do.

Workers like Nigel and Scott.

It's been a very anxious five months for them - but they're hopeful

things will work out.

Given there is still a lot of anxiety and insecurity, not

knowing what is going to happen, at least you are feeling optimistic

at the moment that there is a future in the steelworks for both of you.

So long as potentially a buyer comes in, or as I said,

Tata might keep it - the Government have promised to help.

As long as it stays open we're hopefully pretty safe.

We're on the top of the roller-coaster at the moment.

But who knows what's going to happen next week?

Yeah, that's right.

In this story.

There's been a lot of ups and downs so far and we're

expecting another one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Wait and see what happens now.

It's not been plain sailing for Peter either - he's

still looking for a job.

Hello.

How you doing?

So what are the job prospects out there?

Have you had a look and seen what's around?

Constantly on the internet.

I've spent more time on the internet this last five weeks

than I've ever done.

I didn't realise how difficult it is to find a job, like.

And it is.

I went as far as Cardiff to try and find a job, and I can't.

What's the last four or five weeks been like,

since you lost the job?

It's been a nightmare, to be honest with you.

As far as I was concerned it was a job for life

and I was going to retire in the steelworks.

And here I am now, back to square one, so to speak.

How are you feeling about your prospects for getting a new job?

I'm feeling good at the moment.

I just passed my second test today.

It'll take ten days - it's a proper licence,

you know what I mean?

Still no job, but Peter won't give up and he's

trying to remain optimistic.

I can apply now, now I've got them licences.

Happy days.

That's amazing.

You're a good teacher, maybe you should start teaching guitar?

That's the end of it, innit?

And for Chris.

After months of uncertainty, he's been told he's not being made

redundant after all.

So how did that feel when they told you there was a job there for you?

It was relief, it was relief.

It really was.

Because a few times I've been told, "There's a job,

we've got you a job, you're safe," but nothing was happening.

There was nothing official.

Presumably even though you have got a job there's still a lot

of insecurity that comes along with that.

Course there is, course there is.

I mean, one of the potential buyers already said they're going to get

rid of another 1000 jobs - that's across the UK, not just

in Port Talbot.

Again, that's more worry.

As a family, how do you plan for the immediate future now?

It has given us a little bit of security and we can

start planning again - but for how long?

And what it's done for me, it's shaken me to the core

and I think we need to start looking to see if we can survive on one

income just in case.

That's how much it's frightened me.

The town and the community surrounding the steelworks have been

scarred by the events of the last few months.

The town and the community surrounding the steelworks have been

scarred by the events of the last few months.

And there seems to be no end in sight.

We don't know when a new owner will be announced - if at all.

After putting its entire UK business up for sale there's speculation Tata

may decide to keep the business.

What my biggest concern is, I suppose, is that

the focus that has come on to this community because of what's happened

over the last few months with the steelworks,

it's shown that it's an incredibly dangerous situation for one

community to be so dependent on an industry like this.

Having been inside the steelworks and seen this extraordinary town

within a town and people working together and the pride that

people have inside there and the extraordinary kind of raw

elemental power of heavy industry, matched together with the precision

of the technology of the science that's going on there,

that expertise, that knowledge, if this was to go down,

would be lost.

And that would be a terrible, terrible loss.

Not only for this town but all of Wales, all of Britain.

We can't let that happen.

There has to be an alternative, no matter what happens

to the steelworks, there has to be some kind of safety net for these

people and this community, because if it can happen here -

in a place that has been the heart of British industry for so long

- then it can happen anywhere.

Join us in Shropshire, to help a firefighter and his daughter out

Join us in Shropshire, to help a firefighter and his daughter out

of their cramped caravan and turn their desperate dream

into a reality.