Ex-ASW worker Phil Jones says the pensions campaign will continue

Eight hundred workers were made redundant when ASW went into receivership in July 2002.

They lost 90% of the value of their occupational pensions as the company went under, many after decades of paying into the fund.

Their long campaign to win back their jobs and pensions took the workers to the Labour Party conference in Blackpool and to Downing Street itself.

We won't stop the campaign - it will go on until we get justice Ex ASW worker Phil Jones

Although Spanish firm Celsa bought ASW, bringing 400 steel jobs back to the Tremorfa site, the new owners have said they will not take over the pension shortfall.

And UK government ministers have said that a new insurance plan, which will pay out in the event of an employer pension scheme going under, will not apply retrospectively to cases like ASW.

Ex-ASW worker Phil Jones, 55, of Cardiff, told BBC Wales News Online the campaign to compensate those in the firm's pension scheme would continue, despite the latest setback.

Mr Jones, who worked at ASW for more than 30 years, said: "I'm disgusted at the news about the pension laws.

"The change in the law is down to the hard work of the ASW workers.

"It's good the same thing won't be allowed to happen to anyone else, but it doesn't help us.

"It has proved we were right to campaign.

The campaign by ex-ASW workers helped change the rules on pensions

"Blair told us he would do everything possible to help us but the door has been slammed in our face.

"I lost 90% of my pension when ASW went into receivership and it could have amounted to around �300,000.

"I was in talks with ASW to take early retirement when the firm went under and the fund disappeared.

"Now I'll have to work right up to retirement age.

"But we won't stop the campaign - it will go on until we get justice."

Fellow ASW worker John Benson added: "It's absolutely soul-destroying.

"We might have to sell the house - we've lost everything."

His wife Linda added: "My husband worked at ASW for 41 years and we did what the government told us and paid into a pension scheme.

"We are facing a future of poverty - that's the only word."