The Australian Workers' Union hopes its "21st Century Steel Plan" can save Australian jobs at risk due to the financial crisis.

Paul Howes, the union's national secretary, said the plan would be "comprehensive, but it won't be unrealistic".

He said "proactive" and "interventionist" policies were required to overcome the "worst crisis ever in the entire history of making steel in this country".

"We don't want to be protectionist - we don't want to break our free trade or WTO obligations," he said.

Throsby MP Jennie George said she supported Australian steel being used in the Government's infrastructure projects.

"Sharon (Bird, Cunningham MP) and I have been in endless rounds of discussion and negotiation with several key ministers at the federal level (and) we have brought to their attention our concerns about the impact of the downturn globally on local steel demand," she said.

"We've talked to a range of ministers about issues that go to the heart of procurement policy and making sure that in major infrastructure projects that are on the drawing board that as much as possible we source local Australian steel.

"We are very concerned when we read about major projects that are sourcing steel from overseas.

"We will be saying to our ministers that in terms of the major infrastructure projects, we need good interventionist policies which ... provide infrastructure funding to those organisations that can demonstrate that they are about job creation."

Ms Bird said BlueScope Steel managing director Paul O'Malley had recently highlighted to her the company's appreciation of its highly skilled workforce in the Illawarra.

"It was a really strong theme consistently to us that that's why they are so determined to work through the issues rather than lose staff along the way," Ms Bird said.

"They know the times will pick up ... it's how far away it is and how much pain we have to go through to get there."

AWU Port Kembla branch secretary Andy Gillespie said companies which handled the downturn well would be rewarded at its conclusion.

"One of the issues about steel is there's not that much fat there in the labour content any more," he said.

"It's not like the old days - every department is manned up to its capabilities and no more and in some departments they are short.

"At the end of this BlueScope will be a lot stronger ... and I think the workforce will appreciate the effort they put in in not making people redundant."