85 per cent of union's members at Tata Steel vote for industrial action

It involves the closure of blast furnaces at Port Talbot, South Wales.

The union Community balloted more than 3,000 of its members across all Tata production sites in the UK, including the Steelpark at Wednesfield.

Alun Davies, national officer for steel at Community, said: "Today our members delivered their verdict on Tata Steel's job cuts plan, and they have voted to demand a better deal for the workforce."

He said that more than 85 per cent had voted for industrial action.

"It should be noted this resounding mandate has been delivered in spite of the company's bullying and unacceptable threats to slash redundancy payments.

"We will now be consulting our members on next steps, and we urge Tata to reconsider their position and get back around the table to head off a major industrial dispute," he added.

A Tata Steel spokesperson said: “Following the announcement in January of the company’s plans to invest £1.25 billion and to restructure the UK business, we started a formal information sharing and consultation process with our Trades Union colleagues, which continues in an open, collaborative and constructive fashion.

“On March 22, we put forward a significantly enhanced, comprehensive package of support for employees impacted by the proposed transformation, which we have further added to this week – a commitment of £200 million.

“We are naturally disappointed that while consultation continues, some Community Union members across Tata Steel UK have indicated that they would be prepared to take industrial action up to and including strike action if an agreement cannot be reached on a way forward for the business and its employees.”

“While the £1.25 billion commitment with the UK Government will ensure a long-term viable future for low-CO2 steelmaking in the UK, our current business is unsustainable, reporting losses of more than £1m a day.

“This investment is critical as much of our existing iron and steelmaking operation in Port Talbot is at the end of its life, is unreliable and inefficient, and it was for this reason that we had to cease our coke-making operations on March 20.

“By restructuring our UK operations we will be able to sustain the business as we transition to new electric arc furnace technology.

“We believe we have a very exciting future ahead, providing the high quality, low-CO2 steels that our customers in the UK and overseas are so desperate for.

“Furthermore, producing steel from scrap that already exists in significant quantities in the UK rather than importing iron ore and coal from across the world, will be the foundation for more resilient UK manufacturing supply chains.

“Our ambition remains to move forward at pace with a just transition, and to be at the centre of a future green industrial ecosystem in the UK.”

More steelworkers are members of Community than any other union and it represents the vast majority of workers impacted by Tata’s decarbonisation plans.

Around 400 are employed at the Steelpark and Tata Steel has consulted over 19 redundancies there and one at its rail terminal site at Round Oak, Brierley Hill.