Steelworkers from south Wales travelled to Westminster on Tuesday to lobby MPs against the proposed job cuts by Tata Steel. The company plans to cut 2,800 jobs from its UK workforce and potentially shut down both blast furnaces in Port Talbot. Workers are hoping to see at least one blast furnace remain operational until the electric furnace is built, considering Tata Steel’s plans to make the current operations financially viable. Community, the union that represents most of the workers at Port Talbot’s steelworks, led the steelworkers’ train.
Mark Davies, who has worked in Port Talbot for 42 years and has a son working there as well, is worried about where future job opportunities would come from. He wants to see workers of all ages protected from redundancies and the next generations make a good living there. Union leaders met with the UK Labour Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, ahead of the party’s Commons debate on the future of the steel industry on Tuesday. Senedd members and Welsh politicians also discussed Tata’s plans in Cardiff Bay.
Tata Steel has claimed that its operations are currently financially unviable, and the company’s focus is shifting toward producing greener steel. The company has also received £500m from the UK government toward the £1.25bn electric arc furnace it will build. However, production of steel from scratch, which is known as virgin steel, will end this year. Members of the Unite union are also lobbying the MPs alongside Community.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has stated his commitment to steelmaking and provided Tata with £500m to circumvent the closure of the Port Talbot plant and the loss of 8,000 jobs. Welsh Labour Economy Minister Vaughan Gething has requested ‘hundreds of millions of pounds’ more government money. Gething believes that additional UK government support is necessary for a fairer transition toward a growth-inducing sector essential for collective security
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