A fight born from collapse
If you ask most people what they were doing 24 years ago, they will probably struggle to remember. For John Benson and Phil Jones, the answer is immediate: “We were fighting and campaigning for our lost pensions.” These proud Welshmen, now in their eighties and facing ill-health, are still fighting after the collapse of their works pension fund following the failure of their Cardiff-based employer, Allied Steel & Wire (ASW), in 2002.
John, Phil and around 1,000 fellow workers lost promised retirement funds when a £21 million pension shortfall was uncovered. It began an epic Dafydd v Goliath battle between determined Welsh steelworkers and successive governments. They have now worked through nine Prime Ministers and numerous Pensions Ministers, including James Purnell, now Burnham’s Chief of Staff.
From Cardiff to Westminster
Their battle has also coincided with the early history of Wales’s devolved democracy. With Rhun ap Iorwerth, they are now on to the seventh First Minister. In that time, thousands of emails have been sent, petitions submitted to the Senedd, UK Parliament, House of Lords and Number 10, and protests held in Cardiff, London, Brussels and Luxembourg.
It is difficult to comprehend the workload they have absorbed, or the mental strength needed to keep going as a small voluntary group. They received many cross-party assurances that their pensions would be restored and justice served. In their view, those commitments were never properly fulfilled. They see echoes of their struggle in the experiences of Post Office workers, WASPI pensioners, victims of contaminated blood, and Grenfell and building safety campaigners.
Protection without full justice
Public pressure eventually led the UK Government to launch the Financial Assistance Scheme and the Pension Protection Fund, securing up to 90% of victims’ basic core pension values. But the payments were not index-linked. Without proper inflation-proofing or coverage for pre-April 1997 service increases, the real-term value of their pensions eroded dramatically.
The latest chapter has seen the new UK Labour Government introduce the Pension Schemes Act 2026, addressing pre-1997 service increases with Consumer Prices Index uplifts capped at 2.5%, scheduled for January 2027. But John argues that, compared with what they paid into their ASW scheme, the proposed adjustments still fall far short of full restitution.
The human cost of delay
John and Phil’s determination, despite huge setbacks and what they see as political failures, marks them and their fellow campaigners as exceptional. Their goal is simple: to secure what was rightfully theirs — a decent pension they could live on. Instead, proud colleagues struggled to find work in later life, many forced into low-paid jobs in their 70s and 80s.
John himself stacked shelves in Marks & Spencer and loaded passengers’ luggage at Cardiff Airport to make ends meet. Between such jobs, his time was absorbed by campaigning and lobbying. As the years have passed, many colleagues and campaigners have died, often leaving widows to struggle financially. Still, John, Phil and their dwindling band battle on.
Like other long-running social justice campaigners, they believe their continued presence is uncomfortable for a political class that may prefer the issue to fade from view. So, they persist, exuding a dignity and camaraderie seldom seen in today’s industrial and commercial world.
A difficult Whitehall meeting
Earlier this year, John and Phil travelled to London to meet the new Pensions Minister, Swansea’s Torsten Bell, to discuss the ongoing crisis and the Government’s response. It was an unusual summit: two elderly former steelmen from Wales’s lost industrial heritage meeting a young policy thinker at the heart of the UK Labour Government.
In Whitehall, they were supported by independent Senedd MS Rhys ab Owen, one of the ASW workers’ most eloquent advocates, who had initiated the meeting. Rhys was following in the footsteps of his late father, Owen John Thomas, who had campaigned forcefully for ASW workers in the early years of devolution. It is striking that two generations of Senedd MSs have sought justice that remains unfulfilled.
Campaigners bound by injustice
John and Phil were joined by Richard Nicholl and Terry Monk, who lost company pensions in a similar scandal. Like them, they have devoted huge parts of their lives to fighting for fellow workers and pensioners. That team spirit, and burning injustice, has bound these men together for so long.
The meeting did not go well from the campaigners’ perspective. Bell acknowledged the injustice and agreed that what had happened to the ASW workers was wrong, but his final message was not what the group had hoped for. The response left them disappointed.
John later described Bell’s attitude as “arrogant” and says Bell is among the most disappointing Ministers he has encountered in 24 years. His team were also frustrated to learn that Bell would continue in his role as Pensions Minister under the new Burnham administration.
Letters that fall short
In a letter sent in January this year to Mark Drakeford, then Welsh Finance Minister, Torsten Bell accepted the shortfall of the new Government’s response: “I appreciate that this proposal may not go as far as some would like.” In August, the new Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Kinnock wrote to Phil Jones and acknowledged “that many former ASW workers remain disappointed that the changes do not go further”.
It’s difficult to comprehend the crushing impact that these letters have on campaigners. Their sense of understatement is testimony to a government machine that after 24 years, is still able to sidestep a widely acknowledged social injustice.
John contrasts these latest Government responses with a letter he received from former Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan, written after she left office in 2012.
“Dear John, I am so sorry I could not do more for you and your colleagues. IT IS SO WRONG.”
John and Phil met her by chance years later in Westminster’s Portcullis House while meeting Labour MP and trade unionist Jack Dromey. John recalls Dame Gillan saying she still thought about ASW Cardiff and could not understand why the workers had been treated so unfairly.
Two decades of political promises
Talking to John, Phil, Richard, Terry and Alan Marnes, another long-standing campaigner, you realise they have met a “who’s who” of the last two political decades. In Wales alone, the names include Natasha Asghar, Mick Antoniw, Andrew RT Davies, Mark Drakeford, Nick Bourne, Jane Dodds, Mike Hedges, Jane Hutt, Eluned Morgan, Darren Millar, Sam Rowlands, Bethan Sayed and Leanne Wood.
In Westminster, they have enjoyed support from Julie Morgan, Jenny Willott, Jonathan Evans, Elfyn Llwyd, Hywel Williams, Liz Saville Roberts and Lord Dafydd Wigley.
John and Phil are particularly positive about Wales’s new First Minister, Rhun ap Iorwerth, with whom they have previously engaged. But it remains to be seen whether he can change Westminster’s response when so many before him have failed. John’s frustration is often directed at Westminster Labour and Conservative politicians, whom he believes have repeatedly let down his fellow workers.
Across the UK Labour and Conservative parties, there is hardly any senior politician they have not lobbied or met. With nine Prime Ministers and numerous Pensions Ministers in the background, their fight is truly epic. John argues that ASW could probably have been saved with a relatively small cash injection to update the plant, contrasting this with recent government support for jobs at Port Talbot and Scunthorpe.
Why some injustices move faster
They also point to the UK Government’s transfer of a £1.5 billion investment reserve back to members of the Miners’ Pension Fund, providing an immediate 32% pension boost. In the campaigners’ view, successive governments have still failed to resolve the ASW injustice. It raises a difficult question about why some causes receive more political attention than others.
A dwindling band still fighting
For John, Phil and their tight band of campaigners, the fight goes on. Many are now battling the effects of age and ill-health. John recalls a meeting with Pensions Minister Steve Webb at the Welsh Office in London: “Of the seven ASW members who attended, four of those brave fighters have already passed on.”
It is still hoped that, after so much effort and pain, the new UK Government will find a way to bring closure to what campaigners regard as a deeply painful case of injustice. As each year passes, the estimated cost appears to decrease, but with so many politicians already come and gone, it remains to be seen. John and Phil fear the latest responses are not encouraging.
Recognition for outstanding Welsh citizens
It is also hoped that some form of official recognition will be shown to John, Phil and fellow long-serving campaigners Richard, Terry and Alan. Their lived demonstration of camaraderie, community and respect for fellow workers sets them apart as outstanding Welsh citizens. None seeks such recognition; their single-minded focus remains the full restoration of their pensions. But whatever the outcome, Wales is a better place for their determination, community loyalty and selfless endeavour.
More from Mark Thomas
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