Around 3,000 jobs are at risk at Tata Steel as part of a planned restructuring of its Port Talbot Steelworks, the department for business has said. The Government is to pump up to £500 million into Britain’s biggest steelworks as part of plans to produce “greener” steel which could also hit thousands of jobs, sources have said.
It said the plan to replace existing coal-powered blast furnaces at the Port Talbot site would “reduce the UK’s entire carbon emissions by around 1.5%.” Tata, the Indian conglomerate that owns the Port Talbot steelworks in South Wales, will use the funding to help switch the plant’s two coal-fired blast furnaces to electric arc versions that can run on zero-carbon electricity.
Gary Smith, GMB general secretary, said: “The jobs of thousands of steelworkers are now at risk. The cost to local people and the wider Port Talbot community will be immense. Once again, we have the spectacle of leaders talking up the fantasy land of a ‘just transition’ while the bitter reality for workers is them getting the sack.”
“Unite will be fighting tooth and nail not only to save these jobs, but to create more jobs in steel.” “We need a proper long-term plan for zero-carbon steel-making in this country – not 1980s-style deindustrialization. Other countries – like America and Germany – are working in partnership with unions and employers to protect their manufacturing heartlands. We should be doing the same.
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