Tata Steel: Steelworkers may ballot for strike action, union says

Tata Steel's Port Talbot site in south Wales employs more than 4,000 workers

Steelworkers are willing to ballot for industrial action if they are not listened to over plans to cut thousands of jobs, a union officer has said.

Alun Davies, Community union's national officer for steel, said Tata workers in Port Talbot were "ready for the fight".

An investment deal of more than £1.2bn to produce steel in a greener way was announced in September, but it could see about 3,000 lose their jobs.

The UK government previously said the investment would safeguard 5,000 jobs.

Tata Steel employs 8,000 people across the UK, 4,000 of those in Port Talbot.

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Mr Davies told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast the union would do "whatever it takes".

He said: "We will not see the plans Tata have currently implemented in Port Talbot.

"If this is a green transition, why are you shutting our assets in the UK and then bringing blast furnace made steel from around Jaipur and in Holland and shipping it around the world and to the UK in dirty diesel veg ships?"

The site in Port Talbot is the biggest steelworks in Britain

His comments followed a meeting of steelworkers from the Port Talbot and the nearby Trostre site in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, to discuss Tata's plans.

The unions broadly agree with Tata Steel's ambition to decarbonise its UK operations.

They believe the company intends to replace the blast furnaces solely with an electric arc furnace, which melts scrap metal.

On Wednesday the company seemed poised to officially confirm the plans that had been briefed to the unions, but following a Tata board meeting in Mumbai the company said it would not be making an announcement.

Tata Steel had been accused of "shambolic" treatment of its staff by the Unite union, which said it had "no respect" for its workers.

The company responded by saying it made "every effort" to share updates with employees first.