According to a recent report, a union is planning to defend current jobs while pushing for the creation of new ones at a steelworks that is at risk of several thousand redundancies. Unite, which represents some of the 4,000 steelworkers at Port Talbot, was informed that 3,000 jobs at the plant were at risk due to plans to reduce carbon emissions at the UK’s largest steelworks. While the Community and GMB unions have endorsed a plan that promotes decarbonisation and would “protect more than 2,300 jobs over a decade and would see no compulsory redundancies in Port Talbot,” Unite has publicly rejected it. In a document shared with Newyddion S4C, Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, called for the growth of steel production in the UK, asserting that it could be accomplished by winning a substantial share of the growing market for green steel in the UK and by supporting progressive public procurement policies.
According to this 22-page report, UK steel production can be doubled by 2035, and the UK only produced 60% of the steel it required last year. The union proposed that all public contracts utilise only British steel, which would result in £7 billion being invested in the economy. Unite also advocated for energy price caps and public ownership of the electricity grid, citing that Germany and France had recently implemented significant energy subsidy schemes for their industries. The report suggested that a £12 billion national investment by 2035 would “ensure growth” and “easily pay back the taxpayer by boosting industry revenue and keeping thousands of people in work.”
The union’s representatives unanimously supported two proposals for the Port Talbot site, according to the report. Building a new, greener electric arc furnace by 2027 and keeping a blast furnace open until 2034 was the first step. The second proposal included the construction of additional electric arc furnaces, a lower-carbon iron-producing facility, and the creation of a new industrial zone adjacent to the existing plant. The Unite plan was not discussed at the UK Steel Committee, where joint unions collaborate with Tata on initiatives to promote UK steel, and instead, it is entirely independent. Tata Steel has stated that it is in continuous talks with employee representatives and the UK and Welsh governments and that all parties are “committed to transitioning to greener steelmaking in the UK.
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