 "Tata steel")
First Minister of Wales, Vaughan Gething, met the Tata Steel management in Mumbai on Friday over potential job cuts in the wake of restructuring at Port Talbot in Wales, UK.
After the meeting, minister Gething posted on X, “An important meeting with Tata in Mumbai this morning. I repeated our call for no compulsory redundancies and pressed the case for long term investment. Talented workers in Wales make quality steel. Their work is good for growth and good for security. It must be protected.”
Tata Steel managing director and chief executive officer, TV Narendran, said in a statement later, “Today we had a productive discussion with the new First Minister of Wales about progressing our plans to secure the future of steelmaking in South Wales.”
“Tata Steel’s position remains that we are committed to the green transition of the UK steel industry, and our state-of-the-art electric arc furnace in Port Talbot will help safeguard steel sovereignty in Britain, preserve 5,000 jobs, support our customers, and reduce CO2 emissions by 5 million tonnes each year.”
“We understand the difficulties that our people are facing and are doing our utmost to provide holistic support, including on mental health. We are offering the most generous financial support package ever offered to outgoing employees. Additionally, we are committed to providing support with job searches, training, and upskilling activities, and we have committed 20 million pound to the Transition Board,” he further added.
Also Read
Tata Steel, Narendran said, has always been a “responsible, long-term, and patient investor in its UK business”.
The meeting with the Welsh minister follows Tata Steel’s announcement last month that it would proceed with its 1.25 billion pound investment to build a state-of-the-art EAF at Port Talbot and commence closure of the existing heavy end assets in the following months. The decision had followed seven months of formal and informal national level discussions with the UK trade unions.
The transition from an emission-intensive blast furnace technology to low-carbon was expected to result in up to 2,800 potential job losses across the businesses. Trade unions in the UK had been pressing to keep open a blast furnace at Port Talbot steelworks.
On Thursday, members of the steelworkers’ union, Community in the UK, voted in favour of an industrial action over Tata Steel’s restructuring plans.
Community said in a statement that it had balloted more than 3,000 members across all Tata Steel UK production sites and more than 85 per cent voted for industrial action.
The union would be consulting members on next steps.
“We urge Tata to reconsider their position and get back around the table to head off a major industrial dispute,” it said.
The investment in the transformation has been pegged as the single largest in the UK steelmaking in decades. Of the 1.25 billion pound investment, the UK government has committed 500 million pounds to enable the transition, and Tata Steel plans to invest 750 pound million.
However, trade unions in the UK have been urging for reconsidering the restructuring plan.
Community is the second union in the UK, after the Unite, to call for industrial action. Last month, Unite, had said that around 1,500 members employed by Tata in Port Talbot and Llanwern have an industrial action mandate against plans to shut both blast furnaces.
