AT least 1000 jobs are tipped to go at manufacturing giant BlueScope Steel and workers across the sector have been warned to brace for big job losses.
BlueScope will today announce it is set to close its Western Port hot strip mill at Hastings and its No.6 blast furnace at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, The Australian reports.
About 800 jobs will be lost in NSW and 200 in Victoria.
The losses come as the nation's highest-profile union leader has warned workers to brace for big manufacturing job losses because of the high value of the Australian dollar.
Australian Workers Union chief Paul Howes said there was a crisis that would be one of the worst for manufacturing since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
"We are now facing a major crisis in Australian manufacturing," Mr Howes told Sky News's Australian Agenda program yesterday.
"The next couple of weeks are going to see huge amounts of jobs in the manufacturing sector go.
"This is one of the worst periods that Australian manufacturing has gone through since the Great Depression, and we are seeing a once-in-a-generation, or once-in-a-lifetime shift, in the Australian economy at the moment, primarily driven by the high Australian dollar."
Last week, Qantas revealed 1000 jobs would go and OneSteel said it was cutting 400 workers.
Mr Howes said it was not the carbon tax that was to blame, but the high value of the dollar, while China's currency had become 40 per cent cheaper.
He also criticised Treasury figures on job growth.
"I'm very concerned about Treasury's advice on this matter, because Treasury seems to think that, you know, if you lose one job here that automatically that person is going to be replaced over here," he said.
"That isn't the case, and that's not our experience."
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1000 Jobs Tipped To Go At BlueScope Steel. (Read 2038 times)
