“The Government risks being remembered as one which sat on its hands whilst the industry that tens of thousands of working class people rely on collapsed in slow motion”
In July last year, I was in Stoke-On-Trent meeting GMB members who work in the UK’s ceramics industry.
Alongside my friend and long-time activist Sharon Yates, we visited the world famous cup manufacturer Dunoon in Walton, just outside the city.
Sharon is one of the 20,000 British men and women who work in Britain’s potteries, which locals know affectionally as ‘the Pots’. Six generations deep in the industry, she knows better than most what it means to be a potter and what the potteries mean to working class people in the Midlands and beyond. Sharon works alongside her daughter and her granddaughter; local people, with families to feed and mortgages to pay.
Britain’s potteries contribute an estimated £2billion to the economy, sustaining 22,000 jobs across the country.
Our ceramic companies – and the workers that produce these products – are the envy of the world. Every major ceramic industry across the globe can trace some of its lineage back to Stoke-On-Trent; the birthplace of modern industrial ceramics.
So why is this industry struggling to keep its head above water? Why have five major companies – British icons like Wedgewood and more recently Denby – announced jobs losses, plant closures or worse in the last year? The answer is simple; the cost of production is too high due to Britain’s obsession with waging war on gas.
This feels like uniquely British problem; an industry we should treasure, an industry with the potential to thrive, an industry we will need desperately in the future, being allowed to wither on the vine for the sake of avoiding bold political decisions.
The difference is that we now have Labour in charge. We’ve seen this Government act with clarity and speed when it needed to save jobs in steel. We know Labour can and will do the right thing by the British workers when push comes to shove; but as it stands this Government just isn’t getting it when it comes to our potteries.
In a year, we will look back on this moment as our opportunity to avoid disaster, a disaster that will impact this country for decades to come. And the Government have options at their fingertips. Britain’s Industry Supercharger scheme promises to take the bite of our spiralling energy costs for energy intensive industry like the potteries.
But so far Ministers seem unwilling to extend the scheme to ceramics. Why? This is cost neutral, straight forward and the meets the demands of companies, industry bodies and unions alike. The Government risks being remembered as one who sat on its hands whilst the industry that tens of thousands of working class people rely on collapsed in slow motion. If this happens, the political lessons will be all too clear; more division, more alienation and more problems for
