AMWU maintenance workers at BlueScope Steel’s Western Port in Hastings say they still don’t know the future of their employment, days after the company announced 1000 jobs losses over its two operations.

The members, predominately fitters, are contracted to maintenance company Silcar but work under the BlueScope banner.

AMWU delegate at Western Port, Max Webster, said members were angry and upset that they hadn’t been briefed by either BlueScope Steel or Silcar, despite other parts of the company being informed about the job cuts on Monday. 

“We don’t know what’s happening. All we have is a piece of paper (BlueScope stock exchange statement) that was handed to us on Monday morning. We don’t know who is losing their jobs and when they’re going.

“BlueScope production workers have been spoken to. We’ve been told nothing. The company should be making this as smooth as possible so we can move on. Everyone’s getting frustrated.”

He said the announcement on Monday morning was tragic.

“It came as a total shock. We’d heard there might be job loses but we didn’t realise how much was going to be shut down, there is talk 50-60 out of 200 maintenance workers on site will be gone.

“I’ve got family members who work here, lots of people have in-laws and kids here. We’re all affected.

According to Mr Webster the redundancies would be a double blow for the community.

“Most of the workers all live within half an hour, a lot of people moved down here for the job. A lot of young guys who have bought houses and are raising kids. Now their only option is to go interstate, to WA or Queensland.

“I’ve lived in Hastings most of my life, I don’t want to do that, but the kind of work I normally do is disappearing.”

He said the flow on affects for business in the area would be profound.

“This is bigger than 200 jobs at Hastings. There could be up to 300-400 jobs that could be lost when you include the support industries. Little engineering firms, cleaning companies.

“I don’t think we’ll start seeing the affects until Christmas.  It’s going to filter down through to the community, there are quite a lot more that will suffer. I think that’s been glossed over.

“We’re sad. It was a great company over the years, now we just feel like we’ve been chopped. They’ve been pretty ungracious and ungrateful.”

The union is currently seeking information from Silcar representatives regarding the fate of AMWU members at Hastings.

The Federal government has announced $10 million will be made available for immediate access to intensive services by Job Services Australia providers and training assistance to help affected workers find work in industries where there are more job opportunities.

Fast-tracked relocation assistance will also be provided for BlueScope and Silcar workers who have been made redundant and who find employment in another location.