Around 1,500 Tata steelworkers based in Port Talbot and Llanwern in Newport have voted for industrial action over the company’s plan to close its blast furnaces affecting up to 2,800 jobs.
It is the first time in more than 40 years that Port Talbot steelworkers have gone on strike.
The ballot for strike action by members of Unite closed with workers voting in favour of industrial action. Unite said Tata has other choices after the union secured a commitment from Labour that it will invest £3 billion in UK steel.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“This is an historic vote. Not since the 1980s have steel workers voted to strike in this way. Unite will be at the forefront of the fight to save steelmaking in Wales. We will support steel by all and every means.
“Other EU countries are transitioning their steel industries while retaining and growing their capacity because they know steel has a bright future – a tenfold increase in demand is predicted in the coming years.
“The average age of a Unite Port Talbot worker is 36. Workers and the communities of Port Talbot and Llanwern are looking to the years ahead. They know that with the right choices steelmaking capacity and jobs can be kept and the benefits of growing the industry grasped.”
Dates for strike action have yet to be announced.
A Tata Steel spokesperson said:
“Following the announcement in January of the company’s plans to invest £1.25 billion and to restructure the UK business, we started a formal information sharing and consultation process with our Trades Union colleagues, which continues in an open, collaborative and constructive fashion.
“On 22 March, we put forward a significantly enhanced, comprehensive package of support for employees impacted by the proposed transformation.
“We are naturally disappointed that while consultation continues, Unite Union members at Port Talbot and Llanwern have indicated that they would be prepared to take industrial action up to and including strike action if an agreement cannot be reached on a way forward for the business and its employees.
“While the £1.25 billion commitment with the UK Government will ensure a long-term viable future for low-CO2 steelmaking in the UK, our current business is unsustainable, reporting losses of more than £1 million a day.
“This investment is critical as much of our existing iron and steelmaking operation in Port Talbot is at the end of its life, is unreliable and inefficient, and it was for this reason that we had to cease our coke-making operations on 20 March.
“By restructuring our UK operations we will be able to sustain the business as we transition to new electric arc furnace technology.
“We believe we have a very exciting future ahead, providing the high quality, low-CO2 steels that our customers in the UK and overseas are so desperate for.
“Furthermore, producing steel from scrap that already exists in significant quantities in the UK rather than importing iron ore and coal from across the world, will be the foundation for more resilient UK manufacturing supply chains.
“Our ambition remains to move forward at pace with a just transition, and to become the centre of a future green sustainable industrial ecosystem in the UK.”
