Steel protest attracts unions, and a CEO

A demonstration in protest of low-cost Chinese steel entering attracted several thousand union steel workers as well as Karl Koehler, the European head of operations of India-based Tata Steel.

According to an online report by the United Kingdom-based Independent, some 5,000 demonstrators, including several hundred from the U.K., took part in the mid-February protest.

The demonstrators were protesting against existing conditions as well as the notion of further opening up European Union (EU) markets to China. In addition to the loss of jobs, demonstrators criticized the environmental track records of Chinese steelmakers.

Tata Steel’s Koehler is quoted by the Independent as saying, “We export in the long term our jobs and we import our CO2.” he said.

Press reports indicate some 4,000 jobs in the steel sector have been lost in the U.K. in late 2015 and early 2016, including more than 1,000 layoffs by Tata Steel.

The protest also targeted in part the EU’s consideration of whether China should be granted “market economy” status. Such a designation would likely lower additional trade barriers to Chinese imports.