Community renews call on Tata to drop their broken plan for steel

Community has called on Tata Steel to drop its broken plan for Port Talbot steelworks and get back around the table to support the credible alternative Multi-Union Plan.

This follows Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds meeting with Tata in Mumbai this week. During the meeting, Jonathan Reynolds pledged the Labour Party’s support for the Multi-Union position of retaining one blast furnace in Port Talbot until the 2030s, staving off thousands of job losses with a just transition to green steelmaking.

Following the meeting, Tata released a statement reaffirming their commitment to the bad deal for steel agreed with the UK Government last September, and suggested that continuing to run one blast furnace was ‘financially not affordable’ – despite the Labour Party having committed to putting forward increased funding for Port Talbot and downstream sites including Llanwern and Trostre.

Roy Rickhuss CBE, General Secretary of Community the steelworkers’ union, said:

“The leadership in Tata need to start listening. Tata steelworkers, the Welsh Senedd, the Welsh Government, and the next Business Secretary are all telling them that their plan is wrong.

“Jonathan Reynolds has clearly told the bosses in Mumbai that Labour backs our Multi-Union Plan and intends to support the additional investment required. That’s a complete game-changer which Tata would be both foolish and reckless to ignore.

“Tata’s plan is simply the wrong plan, it’s shortsighted and will have catastrophic consequences for our industry and steel communities.

“Tata has acknowledged our Multi-Union Plan is credible but they rejected it on the basis of affordability. Well Labour has now assured them that funding will be there. So, I now ask Tata why won’t they engage with our plan, why are they hell-bent on their devastating 3mt EAF proposal that will cost us thousands of jobs?

“Labour is looking to the future, Unions are looking to the future, Wales is looking to the future. It’s time Tata dropped their broken plan and joined us.”

Tata launched its formal 45-day consultation on its damaging proposals for Port Talbot steelworks last Friday 2nd February. Community has informed the company that unions will not be bound by the 45 days, and has said that consultations should and will take as long as necessary.

This week the alternative Multi-Union Plan received the unanimous support of Welsh MSs in the Senedd.

Community Union and GMB Union working with Syndex developed the Multi-Union plan for Port Talbot, which has been presented to Tata Steel. You can read this here.

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Community is the steelworkers’ union. More steelworkers are members of Community than any other union, and we represent the vast majority of workers impacted by Tata’s decarbonisation plans. We have a history dating back over a century, representing members and campaigning to protect Britain’s steel industry. We are a modern trade union, campaigning for a better working world.