Unite steelworkers suspend industrial action at Tata

A planned strike by workers at steel giant Tata over job cuts has been suspended.

Unite members have taken industrial action, including a ban on overtime, and planned to hold a general strike starting next Monday.

The union is involved in a legal dispute with the company over plans to close the two blast furnaces at its plant in Port Talbot, South Wales, and switch to a more environmentally friendly way of producing steel that requires fewer workers.

The union said current industrial action and next week’s strike had been suspended.

The community and the GMB unions are also demanding that Tata change its plans, but have not called for industrial action.

Alun Davies, national representative for Community, said: “With thousands of jobs at stake, we welcome Unite’s decision to withdraw their strike and return to the negotiating table with their sister unions in the steel industry.

“Tata confirmed that if the strike is ended, it is ready to resume talks on a possible MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) through the Multi-Union Steel Committee, which is chaired by the community.

“The truth is that Tata never broke off these talks and at our last meeting on May 22, all unions agreed to conclude the negotiations and present the result to our members.

“The community will welcome a resumption of these talks, but we regret that no progress has been made since 22 May.”

The first blast furnace is scheduled to be shut down on Thursday, the second at the end of September.