00:02Just over 24 hours after learning about sweeping job losses, Stephen Sharp has decided he's
00:08done, and he's struggling to accept his son won't be following in his footsteps at the
00:13Stillworks.
00:14I wanted to stay here for the rest of my working career.
00:18You see it a lot, there's a lot of generational workers here, parents have gone through, siblings,
00:24any type of family member, so it's a little bit disheartening.
00:27The decision to stay or go is one 500 workers are considering, after administrators caught
00:33a menther in conjunction with the SA and federal governments, decided to shut down the blast
00:38furnace permanently, and offer redundancies.
00:41We all tried our hardest, we all worked so much to try and get it back, and just unfortunately
00:46we just couldn't get it done.
00:47In November, Richard Wallace would have reached his 40 year milestone.
00:51It is a rough time, everyone's going to feel it.
00:54He too is thinking he'll take a package, but he's not leaving Wyala, the town his parents
00:59moved to when his father started working at the Stillworks in the 1970s.
01:04The kids are here, and my wife's still got a job here, so I'm not planning on leaving,
01:08but I would be looking for a little part time job.
01:10With a further 100 direct contract workers set to lose their jobs too, the town is bracing
01:16for a difficult transition.
01:18There's certainly going to be some hard times in front of us, but at the end of the day,
01:20sometimes you've got to go backwards before we can go forwards.
01:22With so many businesses connected directly to the Stillworks, the impact of the shutdown
01:28will be far reaching, and it's not yet clear exactly how many jobs will be lost.
01:33There are 200 so-called embedded contractors who work for external companies within the
01:38Stillworks that will also no longer be required.
01:42What are you hearing from those contractors about the fate of those 200 workers?
01:46Will they be redeployed?
01:47I couldn't say, honestly couldn't say.
01:49And while the pain of job losses is still fresh, the strong ties to the Steel Town remain.
01:55The Steelworks was wild and wild was Steelworks.
01:57Well, I still believe it, but we're just going to be a smaller version of it.
02:00Court of Memphis says workers have three weeks to make a decision,
02:03but concedes forced redundancies will be inevitable.
02:06Have a look.
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