Around 1,500 steelworkers at Tata plants in Port Talbot and Newport Llanwern have voted in favour of industrial action – the first time in 40 years that Port Talbot steelworkers have gone on strike.
The workers are protesting against Tata’s plans to close its blast furnaces and cut 2,800 jobs.
The ballot by members of the Unite union closed yesterday (11 April). The union said the vote had been “decisive” but did not disclose the results. Details of the strike are yet to be confirmed, but the union said they would be chosen to have “maximum impact”.
The union also noted that blast furnaces run by Tata in the Netherlands are being kept open and jobs protected as the company builds an electric arc furnace and invests in hydrogen technology.
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yes vote has happened despite Tata’s threats that if workers took strike action, enhanced redundancy packages would be withdrawn.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 steelmaking in Wales. We will support steel by all and every means.
Steelworkers
“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.
“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 that the average age of workers in Port Talbot was 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.
“In the crucial weeks to come, Tata’s workers and Unite will put up picket lines to prevent the company from taking this disastrous path.”
Unite Wales regional secretary Peter Hughes said: “Tata has employed everything from bribes to threats to discourage our members from industrial action.
“They will not be intimidated into standing by while Tata attempts to carry out an act of devastating industrial vandalism against their jobs and communities, inflicting untold harm on the Welsh economy and the UK’s national interest.”
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