Around 1,500 Tata Steel workers in Britain will begin an indefinite strike from July 8 over the company's plans to close two blast furnaces and cut up to 2,800 jobs, the trade union Unite said on June 21.
The strike action, described by Unite as the first strikes by British steel workers in 40 years, will take place at Tata's Port Talbot and Llanwern sites in Wales.
The closures were announced in January as part of the Indian company's plan to turn around its loss-making UK business by switching to lower carbon electric arc furnaces, a proposal backed by 500 million pounds ($632 million) of government money.
"Tata’s workers are not just fighting for their jobs - they are fighting for the future of their communities and the future of steel in Wales," Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said.
Tata Steel employs more than 8,000 people in the UK. The company said in January about about 2,500 jobs of the total being cut were likely to go over the next 18 months.
Reacting to the strike decision by the union, a Tata Steel spokesperson said: "We are extremely disappointed by Unite’s unilateral decision to call strike action. Our existing steelmaking assets are near the end of their life, are operationally unstable and causing unsustainable losses of £1 million a day. This is why preparations to close the blast furnaces and associated plants in Port Talbot are unchanged."
“However, if the safety and stability of our operations are put at risk by this action, we will be forced to accelerate those closure plans. After extensive negotiations with our unions we substantially improved our support offering for affected employees – the most generous package in our history. Rather than taking strike action, we would have expected Unite to put our improved offer to its members, as previously accepted by all unions, including Unite," the spokesperson added.
(With Reuters inputs)
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