Steelworkers have voted to strike over planned job cuts.
Unite said around 1,500 of its members based in Port Talbot and Llanwern in South Wales backed industrial action “decisively”. The union is fighting owner Tata’s plans to shut blast furnaces and replace them with “greener” electric arc furnaces.
Unite said it will be the first time in over 40 years that Port Talbot steelworkers have gone on strike. It claimed Tata has other choices after the union secured a commitment from Labour to invest £3billion in UK steel, compared with the £500million pledged by the Tory Government.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This ‘yes’ vote has happened despite Tata’s threats that if workers took strike action, enhanced redundancy packages would be withdrawn.”
The union’s Wales regional secretary, Peter Hughes, added: “Tata has employed everything from bribes to threats to discourage our members from action.” The union community is also balloting its members at Tata for action.
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A Tata Steel spokesperson said: "Following the announcement in January of the company's plans to invest £1.25 billion and to restructure the UK business, we started a formal information-sharing and consultation process with our trades union colleagues, which continues in an open, collaborative and constructive fashion.
"On March 22, we put forward a significantly enhanced, comprehensive package of support for employees impacted by the proposed transformation. We are naturally disappointed that while consultation continues, Unite members at Port Talbot and Llanwern have indicated that they would be prepared to take industrial action up to and including strike action if an agreement cannot be reached on a way forward for the business and its employees.
"We have written to Unite twice during the ballot process to notify them of significant irregularities in the ballot process they have undertaken."
The spokesperson added that while a £1.25 billion commitment with the Government will ensure a long-term viable future for low-CO2 steelmaking in the UK, Tata's current business is unsustainable, reporting losses of more than £1 million a day.
They added: "This investment is critical as much of our existing iron and steelmaking operation in Port Talbot is at the end of its life, is unreliable and inefficient, and it was for this reason that we had to cease our coke-making operations on March 20.
"By restructuring our UK operations we will be able to sustain the business as we transition to new electric arc furnace technology. We believe we have a very exciting future ahead, providing the high-quality, low-CO2 steels that our customers in the UK and overseas are so desperate for.
"Furthermore, producing steel from scrap that already exists in significant quantities in the UK rather than importing iron ore and coal from across the world will be the foundation for more resilient UK manufacturing supply chains.
"Our ambition remains to move forward at pace with a just transition, and to become the centre of a future green sustainable industrial ecosystem in the UK."
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