鋼鐵業衰落時代的雙城記
Opposite the Enterprise Revolution offices, where former steelworkers seek advice on self employment, stretches Redcar’s magnificent beach, lashed with rain. Beyond the sandbanks, the blast furnace looms cold and large through the mist.
在前鋼鐵廠員工尋求自謀職業建議的“創業革命”(Enterprise Revolution)辦公室的對面，就是雨中彎彎曲曲的雷德卡海灘，景色壯美。比沙灘更遠處，一座高爐高大的身影在雨霧中冷冷隱現。
In the UK, the latest crisis in steel’s long decline has sparked anger at the government and appeals to rescue more than 3,000 jobs. But steel’s woes stretch around the world: in China, half a million jobs are reckoned to be on the verge of disappearing.
在英國，長期以來不斷衰落的鋼鐵業最近的這場危機，引發了人們對政府的憤怒，人們呼籲政府拯救3000多個工作崗位。但鋼鐵業的麻煩在世界各地蔓延：在中國，據估計有50萬個崗位瀕臨消失。
For almost 170 years, iron and then steelmaking underpinned Teesside’s economy and self-image. Thousands of men thought this was a job for life: start in your teens, finish at 60 or thereabouts, job done — and a good pension.
近170年來，鍊鐵和鍊鋼先後支撐了蒂賽德(Teesside)的經濟和自我形象。無數人以爲，這就是終身工作：十幾歲入行，幹到大約60歲退休，任務完成——領取一份豐厚的養老金。
Then, last October, SSI UK, the Thai-owned company that had rescued the mothballed Redcar blast furnace and its steel slab-making plants in north-east England in 2011, collapsed, its business plan wrecked by a glut of cheap Chinese steel and by the relatively high costs of UK production.
結果是，曾經於2011年拯救了英格蘭東北部雷德卡封存的高爐以及鋼板生產廠的泰資企業——偉成發鋼鐵工業公司英國分公司(SSI UK)，在去年10月倒閉了，其商業計劃由於市場上價格低廉的中國鋼材供應過剩和英國生產成本相對較高而破產。
As about 2,000 SSI UK employees and 1,000 contractors suddenly lost their jobs, the UK government said it could not save or help to mothball the furnace and coke ovens for future use.
偉成發英國分公司的大約2000名僱員和1000名合同工突然沒了工作。英國政府表示，不可能拯救、或者幫助封存高爐和煉焦爐以備未來使用。
Instead, it hastily offered a ￡80m support package: ￡30m for redundancy payments and ￡50m for retraining, business start-up grants, wage subsidies for employers taking on former steelworkers and support for Teesside businesses.
相反，英國政府緊急提供了8000萬英鎊的扶持方案：3000萬英鎊用於支付解僱費，5000萬英鎊用於再培訓、發放創業補助、向僱傭前鋼鐵廠員工的僱主發放工資補貼以及支持蒂賽德的企業。
Teesside’s steel industry employed 33,000 people as recently as 1980. It is now down to a few plants employing 1,200, processing steel made elsewhere in the UK. And despite the support package, the past six months have been tough.
1980年，蒂賽德鋼鐵業的僱員人數爲3.3萬，如今，只剩了總共僱傭了1200人的幾家鋼鐵廠，加工英國其他地方生產的鋼材。儘管有了扶持方案，過去6個月仍然難熬。
“We are struggling but getting by,” said Steven Reid, who was a train driver at the steelworks, where he now works on a week-by-week basis. His son Macaulay, 21, formerly a contractor at SSI, is unemployed. Macaulay had started a temporary six-month factory job, a 60-mile daily round trip, but his pay could not sustain the cost of fuel and his ￡400 a month car loan, taken out in steelworks days.
“我們過得很困難，但能勉強過活，”以前在鋼鐵廠當火車司機的史蒂文•裏德(Steven Reid)表示。如今他的工作狀態是幹一周算一週。他的兒子麥考利(Macaulay)今年21歲，曾在偉成發當合同工，如今處於失業狀態。麥考利曾在一家工廠做了6個月的臨時工，每天往返60英里，但收入還不夠付油錢和償還每月400英鎊的車貸。車貸是他在鋼鐵廠工作時申請下來的。
Asked to rate on a scale of one to 10 how hard it would be to rebuild Redcar’s economy, Amanda Skelton, chair of the task force set up to engender recovery, did not hesitate. “Ten,” she said. “It’s about the culture of the place — the fact that steel runs in people’s blood. SSI were a ray of light and hope. It has been a great disappointment.”
當被要求給重建雷德卡經濟的難度按1分至10分打分時，經濟復甦特別工作組負責人阿曼達•斯凱爾頓(Amanda Skelton)毫不猶豫。“10分，”她說，“這是由於這裏的文化——事實上，鋼鐵融入了人們的血液裏。偉成發曾帶來一抹光亮和希望。但它太讓我們失望了。”
According to Ms Skelton, the local economy, once dominated by dynamic Victorian ironmasters and then by ICI, the chemicals and petrochemicals group, is now dependent on a few large-scale foreign-owned employers. “Decisions are being made in boardrooms across the world.”
斯凱爾頓稱，維多利亞時代活力十足的鐵器製造商、化學與石化企業帝國化學工業(ICI)曾先後主宰當地經濟，如今，當地經濟的支柱是少數幾家大型外資企業。“決策是在位於世界各地的董事會裏做出的。”
This was underlined, just weeks after SSI UK’s liquidation, by news that the Israeli-owned Boulby potash mine, just south of Redcar, was to shed 360 jobs, a third of its total. Enterprise Revolution staff have been left trying to explain to former potash miners why they qualify only for business start-up loans while former steelworkers, thanks to the rescue package, can get grants of up to ￡10,000.
明確表明這一點的是偉成發英國分公司破產僅幾周後傳出的新聞：雷德卡以南由以色列所有的博比(Boulby)鉀鹽礦將裁員360人，爲員工總人數的三分之一。“創業革命”的工作人員不得不向前鉀鹽礦員工解釋，爲何他們只能獲得創業貸款，而得益於救助方案，前鋼鐵廠員工可以獲得至多1萬英鎊的創業補助。
The 71 businesses started by former steelworkers have provided cheering stories of skills being applied to self-employment. However, Phil Teasdale, founder and chief executive of Enterprise Revolution, said: “It is really easy to start a business. It is about sustaining a business.”
前鋼鐵廠員工創立的71家企業，讓人看到了把技能運用到自謀職業中去的令人振奮的案例。然而，“創業革命”的創始人兼首席執行官菲爾•蒂斯代爾(Phil Teasdale)表示：“創辦一家企業其實很容易。難的是把企業經營下去。”
His team sometimes has to drum some realism into new clients. “A lot of people think it’s Alan Sugar and Richard Branson.” Yet in Redcar, “the majority are potentially micro businesses”.
有時候，他的團隊不得不強迫新客戶認清現實。“很多人認爲自己是艾倫•休格(Alan Sugar)和理查德•布蘭森(Richard Branson)。”但在雷德卡，“大部分企業可能都是微型企業”。
Mark Hill, 37, has gone from being a steelworker to preparing to open a Jamaican food takeaway in Middlesbrough next month backed by a ￡7,700 grant. It is a change of career that offers a welcome end to signing on at the JobCentre; for him, the past six months have spelt financial struggle and relationship breakdown.
37歲的馬克•希爾(Mark Hill)不做鍊鋼工人之後，準備下月用7700英鎊補助在米德爾斯布勒(Middlesbrough)開一家牙買加食品外賣店。這種職業轉變讓他終於不用再去就業中心(JobCentre)報到了；對他而言，過去6個月意味着財務困難、和伴侶的關係破裂。
“It’s embarrassing,” said Mr Hill of applying for benefits. “You are made to feel you’re going with your hands outstretched.”
“這令人難堪，”希爾在談起申請失業津貼時表示，“你感覺自己是去伸手要錢的。”
So far, the task force has committed ￡14.5m to training and support for businesses and jobs. It has agreed 10,855 training courses for nearly 3,000 people and says 1,342 former SSI and supply chain workers have moved off benefits into full-time work or training.
到目前爲止，這個特別工作組已投入了1450萬英鎊，用於培訓以及對企業和就業崗位的支持。該工作組批准了近3000人的10855份培訓課程，並表示，已有1342名前偉成發及其供應商員工不再領取失業津貼，開始了全職工作或培訓。
But the challenge is by no means over.
但是，挑戰絕沒有結束。
Last September, before SSI UK’s liquidation, Redcar and Cleveland already had 5,600 unemployed people, a rate of 9.1 per cent against 5.5 per cent for England and Wales. Paul Warren, the SSI site’s union leader, now working full-time for the Community union, estimates 900 former steelworkers are still unemployed.
去年9月，在偉成發英國分公司倒閉之前，雷德卡和克利夫蘭的失業人數已達5600人，失業率爲9.1%，而英格蘭和威爾士的失業率爲5.5%。如今全職爲社區工會工作的偉成發工會領袖保羅•沃倫(Paul Warren)估計，目前有900名前鋼鐵廠員工仍處於失業狀態。
The steelworks paid well. Manual workers were on ￡33,000, plus overtime. Current vacancies offer much less, such as ￡20,000 a year for an electrician, half the steelworks rate. Rather than take those jobs, some tradesmen are commuting weekly to London.
鋼鐵廠工資曾經很高。算上加班費，鋼鐵廠工人的年收入爲3.3萬英鎊。當前空缺職位的工資低了很多，比如電工年薪爲2萬英鎊，約爲鋼鐵廠薪水的一半。有些鋼鐵廠工人沒有選擇這些工作，而是每週都通勤去倫敦上班。
For those still unemployed, Mr Warren worries about anger and frustration turning into demoralisation. “Some people have got to 50, had the rug pulled from under them and are thinking, ‘I give up’.”
沃倫擔心，那些仍然失業的人可能會由憤怒和沮喪轉向消沉。“有些人已經50歲了，猛然失去了保障，開始想，‘我放棄算了’。”
Qianan’s furnaces lie silent after mill workers told to ‘take leave’
在鋼鐵廠通知工人“放假”之後，遷安的高爐靜悄悄地矗立着
At the Qianan Zhayi steel mill, silence reigns. In an empty warehouse, coils of hot-rolled steel rust. Piles of slag sit beside cold blast furnaces. A solitary worker kicks rocks in an empty street.
在遷安軋一鋼鐵集團(Qianan Zhayi Steel)，萬籟俱寂。一間空蕩蕩的倉庫裏，一卷卷熱軋鋼卷板已生鏽。冰冷的高爐旁邊，堆放着大量爐渣。一名工人獨自在空曠的街道上踢着石塊。
Like its counterparts in the UK and southern Australia, the Zhayi mill is a victim of a global industry in crisis. In March this year, the mill stopped taking orders, gathered its workers and told them to take a month off. “They don’t dare say xiagang [lay-off] — they say ‘take leave’,” said Zhou Kun, a steelworker in his 20s who until recently carried out quality inspection.
正如英國和澳大利亞南部的鋼鐵企業一樣，遷安軋一也是全球性行業危機的受害者。今年3月，這家企業停止接單，把工人們召集到一起，宣佈放假1個月。“他們不敢說下崗——他們說‘放假’，”20多歲的鋼鐵工人周昆(音)表示。直到最近，他一直在鋼廠裏做質檢工作。
Workers are jobless regardless of the word used, according to Mr Zhou, who is one of the 500,000 steelworkers the Chinese government says will lose their jobs in the next five years.
周昆表示，不管使用哪個詞，反正鋼廠員工沒有工作了。周昆是據中國政府宣佈未來5年將下崗的50萬名鋼鐵系統職工之一。
“There are no opportunities in the steel industry at the moment,” he added, explaining that he is reliant on family and friends to find new work but admitting that pretty much everyone he knows works or worked in local plants. “I spend most days at home surfing the web. What else can I do?”
“眼下，鋼鐵行業沒有機會了，”他接着說。他解釋稱，自己在託家人和朋友找工作，但他承認，幾乎他認識的每一個人都在當地工廠上班或曾經在那裏上班。“大多數日子，我就在家裏上網。我還能做什麼呢？”
Qianan, a mineral-rich valley three hours west of Beijing, is packed with steel mills that expanded in size and number through the 1990s and 2000s to feed an insatiable construction industry.
遷安位於北京以西3小時車程處的一個山谷中，礦藏資源豐富，那裏設立了許多鋼鐵廠。上世紀90年代至2000年代，鋼鐵廠的數量和規模都大爲膨脹，以滿足胃口奇大的建築行業的需求。
The city grew wealthier on the back of the mill’s profits. Migrant workers flocked in looking for jobs, and locals from villages such as Mr Zhou’s began to abandon their one-storey homes in favour of newly built apartments in the town centre.
鋼廠的利潤讓遷安市變得更加富有。農民工蜂擁而來尋找工作，像周昆一樣的當地村民開始從平房搬進市中心新建的公寓樓裏。
The boom years are over. China’s need for steel has peaked but its capacity has not, and the costs of this overhang are being felt at home and abroad. Vast overproduction last year saw Chinese steel flood out of the country, sinking prices worldwide and crippling steelmakers across the globe as it went.
繁榮年代已結束。中國的鋼鐵需求已見頂，但產能尚未見頂，國內外都開始感受到這種供過於求的代價。去年，在大規模的生產過剩下，中國的鋼鐵大量出口國外，壓低了全球價格，嚴重削弱了全球各地的鋼鐵企業。
In Qianan, mills are also struggling to survive. A lack of demand and a surfeit of losses forced Tianjin Bohai Steel, which owns Zhayi, into negotiations with its creditors in an attempt to untangle Rmb192bn (￡20.9bn) in debt it is struggling to repay. Zhayi and three other mills are in limbo.
在遷安，鋼鐵企業也難以維持生存。需求不足，虧損過高，迫使遷安軋一的母公司天津渤海鋼鐵集團(Tianjin Bohai Steel)與債權人展開談判，試圖清理重組其難以償還的1920億元人民幣（約合209億英鎊）債務。遷安軋一和其他三家鋼鐵企業已陷入癱瘓。
The outlook is not good, according to Xu Zhongbo, an analyst at China Metals Consultancy, who believes large mills with “primitive” equipment such as Zhayi are unappealing to buyers. “First these mills will stop production, then once the workers have left, they will close for good,” he said.
北京梅塔科諮詢服務有限公司(Beijing Metal Consulting)總裁許中波表示，前景並不妙。他認爲，像遷安軋一那樣的設備“原始”的大型鋼鐵企業對買家沒有吸引力。“首先，這些工廠將會停產，然後，一旦工人們離開，工廠就將永久性關閉，”他說。
Beijing has promised a Rmb100bn fund of “rewards and subsidies” to support official “resettlement” programmes by local governments and companies, but the details are unclear. Zhayi workers have received no official support and are even unaware of its existence.
北京方面已承諾投入1000億元人民幣“獎勵與補貼”，支持地方政府和企業的官方“再安置”項目，但細節仍不明確。遷安軋一的工人尚未收到任何官方補助，甚至不知道有這回事。
Instead, they use informal means of job hunting. In north Qianan, a crowd of laid-off workers gathers around a billboard papered with A4 job advertisements.
相反，工人們使用非正式的求職渠道。在遷安北部，一羣下崗工人聚集在一個貼滿A4紙招聘廣告的公告欄周圍。
“[When people are laid off] there are two routes they can take,” said the operator of the board, who declined to be named as he works in a legal grey area. “One is to go and do [official] training, but you have to wait a long time. The other is to come here [to a labour market] and find work immediately.”
“（當人們下崗時，）他們有兩個選擇，”布告欄的經營者（由於其經營行爲屬於法律灰色地帶，他不願具名）表示，“一個是參加（政府組織的）培訓，但你肯定得等上很長時間。另一個是來這裏（的勞務市場），馬上找到工作。”
Even with unofficial help, finding work is a struggle. Most job descriptions ask for young, well educated workers. Those more suited to laid-off workers — most of whom are older and male — largely offer temporary work or jobs away from the city.
儘管有非官方勞務市場的幫助，找到工作仍是難事。大多數職位介紹要找的是年輕、教育程度較高的工人。那些更適合下崗職工——主要是年齡偏大的男性——的工作多是臨時性工作或距離城市很遠的崗位。
Fed up with poor prospects and false promises, workers protest regularly. When Songting, another Qianan plant, closed last October, its workers filled the office parking lot demanding compensation. Such protests are anathema to the local government. The response is usually a crackdown and, if workers are lucky, a payout. But this does not create jobs or boost the local economy.
由於受夠了暗淡的前景和虛假的承諾，鋼廠員工時不時地舉行抗議。當遷安的另一家工廠鬆汀鋼鐵廠(Songting Steel)於去年10月關閉時，工廠員工聚集到公司停車場上，要求得到補償。地方政府對這種抗議非常頭痛。迴應通常是壓制，如果工人們幸運的話，也會得到一筆錢。但是，這並未創造工作崗位，也未提振地方經濟。
Largely ignoring the immediate problem, the Qianan government is focused on becoming a holiday destination and has changed its slogan from “City of Steel” to “Northern Water City”. A lack of tourist sites is being solved by building a temple in ancient Chinese style on the bank of the river.
遷安市政府在很大程度上忽略了迫在眉睫的問題，正集中精力把遷安打造成一個度假地，並已把宣傳口號從“鋼鐵遷安”改爲“北方水城”。爲解決缺乏旅遊景點的問題，遷安正在河岸上修建一座中國古代樣式的寺廟。
Former steelworkers may also benefit in a way, though not necessarily financially, says Liu Dongshan, a steel trader turned taxi driver.
曾經的鋼鐵廠員工或許也能以某種方式獲益，不過未必會有金錢上的好處，由鋼鐵經銷商轉行做出租車司機的劉東山（音）說。
“I don’t make as much money being a taxi driver as when the steel prices were high,” he said from behind the wheel of a new car. “But at least I have more freedom.”
“做出租車司機沒有我在鋼鐵價格高時賺到的多，”他握着一輛新車的方向盤，“但我起碼有了更大的自由。”
