STEEL should be exempt from Labor's proposed carbon tax, Australia's biggest manufacturing union says.
The Australian Workers Union (AWU) held a crisis meeting in Sydney today to discuss the effect of carbon pricing on workers in the steel, aluminium, glass and cement industries.
Companies in these industries should be compensated if the government's proposed carbon tax goes ahead, but the steel industry should be exempt from it altogether, AWU national secretary Paul Howes said today.
"We think there is a special case to be made for steel," he said.
"Steel is going through a hard time at the moment, not because of carbon pricing.
"When the dollar sits at 1.05, all export-based industries are under a huge amount of pressure.
"But there is no solid argument we shouldn't be making steel in this country."
To emphasise his point, he referred to steel production at Port Kembla, in the Illawarra region.
"There wouldn't be an Illawarra without Port Kembla Steelworks," he said.
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