The Australian Workers Union is thoroughly concerned on the possible effects of the Federal Government's proposed resources super profits tax on Whyalla's OneSteel operations.

OneSteel's chairman Peter Smedley addressed the shareholders through a letter that the tax may have serious implications on its operations in Newcastle, New South Wales, and Whyalla, South Australia. The tax will also affect some of its 9,000 employees in these projects.

The union's Whyalla organizer Scott Martin admits though that he is not too worried yet because there is a possibility that the tax may be altered or revised.

"Any time a company comes out and says the future of a site could be in jeopardy of course there's concerns and of course I'm concerned about the members we've got out there and their families and their bills and their mortgages,” he quips.

Mr. Martin said he has no intentions of getting involved in the debates and that the mining industry is jumping on the gun too quickly. He also adds that it is too early to get worried.

"Any big work site that a town revolves around, whether it's Whyalla or anywhere else around Australia, is always going to be impacted by those sort of things and yes it would be a tragedy if that happened ... considering this won't come into vogue until 2012, I think everyone just needs to take a bit of a breath and have a rethink.”

One Steel is one of Australia's manufacturer and distributor of structural, rail, rod, merchant bar, reinforcing, wire, tube, and pipeline steel products.