Welsh government welcomes Tata strike call-off – The Irish News

The Welsh Labour government has welcomed a union’s decision to “prevent an immediate crisis” by calling off strike action at Tata Steel.

Unite members were due to stage a general strike next Monday, but the industrial action was called off after the company said it would be forced to cease operations at the site earlier than planned.

The union is embroiled in a dispute with the company over plans to close two blast furnaces at its Port Talbot plant in south Wales and switch to a greener way of producing steel that requires fewer workers.

Speaking in the Senedd on Tuesday, Jeremy Miles, the business and energy secretary, said he was pleased that unions had worked to “avoid an immediate crisis”.

He said: “I am very pleased that all parties involved have now found a way to de-escalate the situation and that meaningful discussions between the unions and the company can now continue.”

However, he said the Welsh Government remained concerned about the “speed of the proposed transition”, believing the company could have implemented a “longer and fairer transition” that would have minimised job losses.

The Welsh Government minister also said the impact on “downstream plants” at Llanwern, Trostre, Shotton and Caerphilly was still unclear and “clarification needs to be provided as soon as possible”.

Conservative MP Sam Kurtz also welcomed the call-off of the strike.

He said: “An early closure would clearly have been bad news for Welsh steel production, for workers and for communities.

“We also welcome any discussions between both steelmakers and Tata to ensure how jobs can be supported in the short to medium term.”

But Mr Kurtz questioned whether Labour was simply giving “false hope” with its promises of a £3bn green steel plan for the UK if it won the general election, and wondered how much of that would go to Port Talbot.

Mr Miles replied: “I don’t think it’s helpful to talk about false hope at this stage. This is a very, very difficult situation for thousands of people.”

He added that how the £3bn fund would be used was “a matter of negotiation with the steel companies” and that it was not for the government to dictate how it would be spent.

Following the announcement of the strike call-off on Monday, a Tata spokesperson said the company would stop early shutdowns of operations at the last blast furnace – Blast Furnace 4 – which will instead close in September as originally planned.

They added: “The resumption of discussions with the UKSC (Steel Committee) will progress from the position reached at the last meeting on 22 May and will focus on the company’s future investment and aspirations, not on a renegotiation of our existing plan for heavy plant closures or improved employment support conditions.

“The closure process of Blast Furnace 5 has now started to be planned and we expect to produce the final cast iron by the end of this week.”