THERE are a lot of things that aren’t fair.

It’s not fair, for example, that there is a much bigger time needed on the treadmill burning off a mince pie than actually eating one, but no-one forced me to eat it so I’ve just got to accept the kale and quinoa consequences in January.

There were many things not fair about the Anderson family board games over Christmas (including some shocking cheating at Hungry Hippos), but again, no-one forced me to play, or play while eating chocolate.

We accept that some things that aren’t fair we can’t change, but we have a choice.

Others are very unfair and we can’t do anything about them.

In a third category, unfair things are done to us and we have no control over them, but the outcome can be changed.

The workers at Boulby mine, in east Cleveland, are facing that situation.

While there is no suggestion that the mine will close altogether, it is shifting production from potash to polyhalite which, while giving the mine a long-term future, will see the loss of at least 200 jobs.

The latest round of job losses comes after an initial round two years ago of 150 jobs at the same time as the collapse of SSI UK.

Tees Valley was awarded money by the Government to assist former SSI workers with training, social support, employment support and business start-ups among other things.

The workers exiting Boulby at that time got none of the support because Government rules said it was for SSI workers only.

The SSI funds have been put to good use and only a handful of the 3,000 direct and supply chain workforce have yet to find employment.

There is some money left over, and a campaign is now underway for the Government to allow us to divert some of the funds to provide similar support to the Boulby workers.

The collapse of SSI was a large-scale crisis potentially devastating to Redcar and Teesside.

While Boulby is not on that overall scale, most of the workforce is drawn from small communities in east Cleveland where there is very little alternative employment, so the impact for those communities will be similar.

So, in the name of fair play and indeed common decency, I for one will support the campaign to help the Boulby workers and we’ll see if we can yet get some equity out of a bad situation.

Rachel Anderson is head of policy and representation at the North East England Chamber of Commerce