Members of Community, the largest union among Tata Steel employees affected by the firm’s decision to close two blast furnaces at Port Talbot, voted for strike action yesterday.
Members of Unite have already voted for strike action and those of a third union, GMB, concluded its ballot yesterday (9 May).
Both blast furnaces in Port Talbot are expected to close this year with 2,800 jobs lost across the UK as a result. An electric arc furnace costing £1.25bn – towards which the government has contributed £500m – will be built by the firm at the site, but this will provide fewer jobs.
The company said it had a £130m redundancy programme in place.
But the unions have said the company had disregarded the impact of the changes on workers, their families and communities in favour of maximising profits.
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Alun Davies, national officer for steel at Community said: “Today our members delivered their verdict on Tata Steel’s job cuts plan, and they have voted to demand a better deal for the workforce. Community balloted more than 3,000 members across all Tata Steel UK production sites, and more than 85% have voted for industrial action.
“It should be noted this resounding mandate has been delivered in spite of the company’s bullying and unacceptable threats to slash redundancy payments.
“We will now be consulting our members on next steps, and we urge Tata to reconsider their position and get back around the table to head off a major industrial dispute.”
The unions say Tata Steel CEO Rajesh Nair has failed to improve the voluntary redundancy package beyond what the firm had already communicated, which included a training scheme for those who did not volunteer that placed them on minimum wage after four months.
The unions believe that the voluntary package would inevitably lead to compulsory redundancies. It added that Tata had refused to move the 25-year cap or increase the multiplier, but had moved in a little in calculating years in service by no longer rounding down the number of years.
Tata and the unions have been in consultations for seven months after the company said it wanted to end blast furnace iron production in south Wales this year.
It employs 4,000 workers at Port Talbot and will begin a voluntary redundancy process in May.
Nair has warned that the company would take the “most favourable financial package” it had offered off the table if there was a strike.
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