Tata workers vote for strike action over shutdown plans

It is the first time in over 40 years that Port Talbot steelworkers have gone on strike.

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yes vote has happened despite Tata’s threats that if workers took strike action, enhanced redundancy packages would be withdrawn.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 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. 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.

“In contrast Labour have done the right thing and committed £3 billion to UK steel following intense discussions with Unite.

“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.

“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 say that at the Tata plant in the Netherlands, the blast furnaces are being kept open and jobs protected as the company builds an electric arc furnace and invests in hydrogen DRI technology. In Germany, a single plant produces more steel than the whole of the UK industry put together.

The union say that dates for strike action scheduled to cause maximum impact will be announced soon.

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.

“Our members have their union’s absolute support in striking to stop these cuts – Unite is backing them every step of the way.”

Steelworkers’ union Community has urged its members to “take a stand in support of the steel industry” as it launches its own ballot for industrial action at Tata Steel UK.

Community Union General Secretary Roy Rickhuss said:

“We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Tata’s bad deal for steel would be a hammer blow for our steel industry. It would see vital skilled jobs lost, and dirty steel products imported from overseas. The loss of primary steelmaking capacity would make Britain an outlier on the G20, and would weaken national security in an increasingly uncertain world. 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. It’s unviable, undeliverable and unacceptable, and our members won’t be bullied or intimidated into accepting it.

“Industrial action is always a last resort for any worker, but our members know that we now have to fight to save our industry, and we must every tool at our disposal to apply pressure on Tata to change course. We are urging our members to vote ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’ for industrial action, and we urge the company to look again at our Multi-Union Plan – a credible alternative to Tata’s plan which safeguards primary steelmaking capacity and avoids compulsory redundancies.”

Community’s National Officer for Steel, Alun Davies, said: “Steelworkers now have a chance to be a part of history and to take a stand to protect our vital steel industry. No steel job is safe under Tata’s bad deal for steel, and it’s imperative that we all band together as one at this critical time.

“Future generations will ask what we did in when our jobs and communities were threatened by Tata’s and the Government’s dirty and damaging deal which leaves no steel job safe. We’ll be able to proudly answer them that we did not go gently into the night, that we stood up for our proud industry, and that we took action to forge a future for steel when it mattered most. That’s why we are asking our members to vote ‘Yes’ and ‘Yes’ in the ballot which opens today.”

Community’s ballot opens today (11 April) and will run for a month.

(Lead image: Tata Steel)

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