Steelworkers plot strike for first time since Thatcher era
PORT TALBOT’S steelworkers are to go on strike for the first time in more than 40 years as they fight plans to close the company’s blast furnaces and shed 2,800 jobs.
About 1,500 steelworkers in Port Talbot and Newport Llanwern have voted for industrial action at the Tata-owned plant – the first strike since Margaret Thatcher was in power.
The ballot for strike action by members of Unite closed yesterday, as workers overwhelmingly backed walkouts over Tata’s proposals. Community – the steelworkers’ union – is holding a separate strike ballot that has yet to yield results, although any prospective action is likely to be coordinated with Unite.
The unions are fighting Tata’s plans to shut down blast furnaces and replace them with more environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces.
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: “This is a historic vote. Not since the 1980s have steelworkers voted to strike in this way.
“This yes vote has happened despite Tata’s threats that if workers took strike action, enhanced redundancy packages would be withdrawn. Unite will be at the forefront of the fight to save steel making in Wales. We will support steel by all and every means.” The Port Talbot plant was originally owned by British Steel but was acquired by India’s Tata Group in 2007.
It can produce up to 5m tons of steel from iron ore each year and supplies finished steel for products ranging from food and drink cans to the steel supports used in the Shard in London.
About 35pc of its steel is used in the car industry, with customers such as Jaguar Land Rover.
Tata has 8,000 employees in the UK, half of which are based in Port Talbot.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of Community Union, said: “The loss of primary steel-making capacity would make Britain an outlier on the G20, and would weaken national security.
“That’s to say nothing of the devastation that would be wrought on communities built on steel in South Wales and beyond.
“Tata’s plan is bad for jobs, bad for the environment and bad for Britain.”
A Tata spokesman defended its restructuring plans, claiming the move to electric car furnace technology will help sustain the business.
They said: “Steelmaking in the UK is unsustainable, reporting losses of more than £1m a day. We are naturally disappointed [that] Unite Union members at Port Talbot and Llanwern have indicated that they would be prepared to take industrial action.”