Tata Steel: More than 1,500 workers to forego pay-offs and strike
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Steelworkers have voted to strike in protest at planned job losses at South Wales’ Tata Steel plant, despite threats of no redundancy pay.
Unite Union today said around that 1,500 of its members based in Port Talbot and Llanwern in South Wales backed industrial action “decisively”.
The union is fighting Tata’s plans to shut down blast furnaces and replace them with more environmentally friendly electric arc furnaces.
Unite said it will be the first time in more than 40 years that Port Talbot steelworkers go on strike.
Unite said Tata has other choices after the union secured a commitment from Labour that it will invest £3bn in UK steel, compared with the £500m pledged by the current Government.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is an historic vote. Not since the 1980s have steel workers 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yes vote has happened despite Tata’s threats that if workers took strike action, enhanced redundancy packages would be withdrawn.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 and we will support steel by all and every means.
Graham added that other EU countries are transitioning their steel industries while retaining and growing their capacity to keep their steel industries healthy.
“In the UK, Tata’s plans and those of the Government reflect the short-term thinking of a clapped-out disinterested government marking time to a general election,” she added.
The energy transition and manufacturing related to it is set to catapult a 10-fold increase in steel demand in the coming years.
Keir Starmer’s Labour party has committed £3bn to UK steel following intense discussions with Unite.