
Tata Steel Plans to Sell British Plants, Threatening 15000 Jobs - wslh
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/world/europe/steel-maker-plans-to-sell-british-plants-threatening-15000-jobs.html
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strongai
Port Talbot is my home town. I left many years ago but still keep in touch and
visit occasionally. Everyone is directly or indirectly connected to the
steelworks.

My father worked in steel, my brother still does, and even I did for a gap
year before university.

Everyone (well, in those parts) knows the joke about a man being asked 'That
thing up there in the sky, is that the sun or the moon?', to which the reply
was 'I don't know, I'm from Port Talbot' (... a sideways dig at the once
extreme pollution there).

It's not the most beautiful analogy, but moving away from home to find a job
is like committing adultery. Once you've done it once, you're perfectly
capable of doing it again.

But what if you haven't? What if you're a steelworker in your 50s whose skills
are steel-specific? What if you've never left your home town because of things
like rootedness, community - and the good jobs that were once on offer?

