Tata Steel faces pay showdown with workers after Unite strike vote
Tata Steel is gearing up for a showdown over redundancy pay packages with workers who intend to strike.
The Union said last week that its members had “decisively” voted in favour of strike action after the Indian firm which owns the plant decided to close its two remaining blast furnaces in South Wales, a decision expected to cost around 2,800 job losses in the coming months.
Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham hailed the decision as “historic”, adding: “not since the 1980s have steelworkers voted to strike in this way.”
However a memo shared with City A.M shows that only 41 per cent of the 1,366 members (568) voted to strike on a 63 per cent total vote turnout.
Tata said it remained “fully committed to acting responsibly and compassionately with regards to affected employees,” and “ensuring the necessary support and assistance.”
This includes a pay package for affected employees, amounting to 2.6 weeks’ redundancy payment for every year of an employee’s service, up to a maximum of 25 years.
Additionally, all full-time employees, regardless of actual service, will receive a minimum of £12,500 redundancy payment.
However an industry source re-iterated to City A.M that this offer remains contingent on employees not taking to the picket line.
“It’s important to think of this in the context of the business already losing £1m a day, covering the cost of strike action and a generous redundancy package would be difficult even for the most generous of firms,” the source said.
“Strike action would massively exacerbate the losses,” they added.
A Union source said that Tata would “find that really difficult, adding: “when we announce strike action, it’ll be to our entire workforce.”
Tata intends to replace the blast furnace with electric arc furnaces, a lower-carbon vehicle for steel production that requires fewer workers.
The government has pledged £500m to the transition, with Tata set to invest an additional £750m.
Wales’ First Minister Vaughan Gething has previously said: “It’s a huge amount of employment to suck out of a community like this.”