SWU waiting for response for proposals from PM

“That proposal is a comprehensive document that outlines the way forward to start back the steel industry with investors, not one investor, but investors,” Henry said.

Henry spoke yesterday with the media on the state of workers who were formerly employed with steel giant ArcelorMittal at the Office of the President, St Ann’s where he was a guest at the presentation of credentials of a diplomat. ArcelorMittal went into voluntary insolvency late last year and left over 2,000 workers on the breadline.

In the proposals, he said, the SWU and the investors were not only looking at the manufacture of original products, but to produce containers given the expansion of the Panama Canal, and container buildings.

Noting that some laid off workers have lost their homes, and others cannot afford the rent they now have to pay without jobs or they do not earn what they earned before, Henry said that low-cost housing using container buildings has been proposed.

Another area proposed was the production of high quality steelpans for the steelband industry, he said. With new developments taking place in Cuba, Guyana, Suriname and other Caribbean and South American countries, he said, that given opportunity for dialogue there may be markets for the steel.