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 has announced.
This 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,” said Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham.
Tata Steel employs more than 8,000 people in the UK, and the company said in January that about 2,500 jobs of the total being cut were likely to go over the next 18 months.
The upcoming strike action highlights the tensions between Tata Steel’s efforts to transform its UK operations and the impact on its workforce and local communities.