Anna Maven’s husband, Paul, lost his job at SSI’s Redcar plant along with 1,700 other steelworkers last week. The Sunderland-based couple have been married for six years and have two daughters, Honor, two, and Monica, four. This is Anna’s blog which recounts the events leading up to Paul’s redundancy.

September 28

THIS time last week we were happily celebrating Honor’s fourth birthday with the family.

I went to work as normal on Monday as a full time teaching assistant in a local junior school. At lunchtime I received a text from Paul to say SSI was closing down the blast furnace in Redcar.

Paul has dedicated the last 14 years of his life to working on Teesside, the last four of them at SSI. He has committed to a 70 mile round trip every time he has journeyed to work. Yes, the money has been good and the shifts have worked well for us with our young family but Paul has put the graft in and shown real commitment to the industry on Teesside.

He was watching Sky News at home when the report came through that SSI was to be mothballed. It dawned on us, there and then, he was one of the 1,700 men who would lose their jobs that week. The thought of Paul not working and the loss of money hit me and the tears sprung...what would we do? How would we cope? We can’t live on my wage alone – where do we go from here? The girls aren’t aware of what is happening, they are too young.

October 4, 2015

Paul returned to work at SSI on Thursday as he had been advised by his bosses. After a few days at home watching the news he was ready to get back and see his mates on D-shift. They really do have a great bond and I’m not sure I can understand how close they are. Twelve hour shifts, I guess, do that to you. Paul isn’t the most confident and outgoing person in the world and of course he’s a mackem (a Sunderland native) but despite all that they’ve taken him to their hearts and he loves them. It’s done wonders for Paul’s confidence being selected from thousands of applicants to work at SSI and he is proud. A proud steelworker. A hard worker. A committed worker.

As expected, his return was emotional. The lads are gutted. Gutted they are losing their jobs. Gutted they are losing their mates. Gutted Redcar is losing its soul. Steel making is a way of life for many men and their families on Teesside. The heart of their community has been ripped out. We know how it feels here in Sunderland having said goodbye to the heart of our industries over the years. Gone are the mines, gone are the shipyards and now gone is the steel. No amount of shiny, new call centres can ever replace this hardworking, salt of the earth industry. No wonder our towns and cities are dying and our young people have nothing to look up to and strive towards.

Paul and the D-shift lads will find work. They are skilled men – too good to be lining up in the Job Centre signing on week after week. The problem is 1,700 are now looking for work. Maybe Paul will be a lucky one and something up this way will crop up. He’d save around £300 a month in fuel costs alone if he could secure a job in Sunderland.

October 5, 2015

As usual Paul’s alarm sounded at 4.45am for him to get up for work on Friday.

At lunchtime he texted me to say that SSI had been put into liquidation. Despite the news he remained incredibly upbeat. They had been told to continue coming to work, that the government were going to help with pay, redundancies and retraining.

I, however, had my reservations. I was just dropping Monica off at my mam’s when I answered the phone and all Paul said was: “Game over."

In a nutshell all the workers on site had been told to clear out their lockers and leave the site. The end was more abrupt than the lads could have imagined. I think “shell-shocked” might be the most appropriate term to use to describe how Paul felt. Gutted, disappointed, emotional and stunned are others. To date Paul has received no formal notification to say he has been made redundant.

We are, at this time, in limbo. Where do we go from here?