Tata Steel: Keep Port Talbot running until after election, union says

About 2,800 Tata steelworkers will lose their jobs across the UK when the company closes both blast furnaces at Port Talbot.

Unions are hoping that if Labour wins the 4 July general election then the party would be able to persuade Tata to take a different course of action with fewer job losses.

Tata has said it would not change its plans whoever wins the election, and it has no option but to close early if next week’s strike goes ahead.

Meanwhile, the company has filed for an injunction at the High Court to try to prevent the strike from happening, saying Unite’s ballot was not carried out properly.

Unite rejects this claim.

The other unions which represent steelworkers at the site – Community and GMB -say they would wait until after the general election before deciding whether to strike.

In a statement on Saturday, Unite said it had “repeatedly requested that the company commit to not making any final decisions about the future of the blast furnaces until after the election, when meaningful negotiations can be held”.

“Instead of waiting for a likely change of government, Tata has decided to double down,” it said, urging the company not to “make any irreversible decisions and enter into meaningful negotiations”.

In response, Tata said it could not be certain it could “safely and stably operate our assets through the period of strike action”, adding it “will not have any choice but to pause or stop heavy end operations” at Port Talbot.

“That is not a decision we take lightly, and we recognise that it would prove extremely costly and disruptive throughout the supply chain, but the safety of people on or around our sites will always take priority over everything else,” it said.