'End of an era': the last Molycop steel-makers work final shift

The company announced in September last year that it would be slashing 250 positions.

Bar mill staff finished up in December and the final steel-makers are working their last shifts on the morning of February 9.

The Australian Workers Union (AWU) NSW branch secretary Tony Callinan said many workers made redundant had spent 30 or 40 years working in the industry - or their entire careers.

"It's a sad end of an era and a sad day for the steel-making industry in general," he told the Newcastle Herald.

"Newcastle has long been known as the steel city and unfortunately I don't think we can wear that tag anymore."

He said staff were fortunate that good severance packages were offered but warned they wouldn't last long for those struggling to get into another job.

He said union members had honed very "specific skills" in steel-making, and while some were close to retirement, others would have to find new work.

Some have already left to take on other employment opportunities, but the last of Molycop's steel-makers will walk out the gates side-by-side with mates and colleagues today at about 11am.

The redundancies meant 250 of 540 jobs at the site were cut.

The Herald spoke with Paul Johnson, a veteran steel-maker of more than 33 years, when he left Molycop for the last time with bar mill staff on December 22.

"It's a sad day, but it's all part of life," he said at the time.

He reflected on how the bar mill and steel-making in Newcastle had been an important part of history.

"It's all gone," he said.

"Nothing lasts forever."

Since the mill started in the early 1990s, about six million tonnes of bar were rolled there.

Mr Johnson said people from all walks of life had been brought together by a common goal - making steel.

Molycop provides consumables and productivity solutions to the mining industry, and the company's Australasia president Michael Parker said at the time of the job cuts announcement that it had been a difficult decision.

He said restructuring steel-making operations would best position the company for success in the long term, and that the decision would align the Waratah business model with Molycop's other operations across the world.