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A planned strike at Port Talbot steelworks has been called off after its Indian owner threatened to close the plant early.
Members of the Unite union have been taking industrial action, including banning overtime, and plan to go on full strike from Monday next week.
The union is embroiled in a dispute with Tata Group over plans to close the two blast furnaces at its plant in south Wales and switch to greener steel production with fewer workers, which would cost 2,800 jobs.
Strike threat: Tata, the Indian owner of Port Talbot, wants to close the plant’s two blast furnaces and switch to greener steel production with fewer workers, which would cost 2,800 jobs
But the union said industrial action and next week’s strike have been called off.
Unite said Tata had agreed to open talks on “future investment in its operations and not just redundancies in South Wales”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “This is a significant step forward in the battle to protect jobs.”
Last week Tata threatened to close its Port Talbot steelworks this week. The government has granted it a £500m bailout to switch to electric arc furnaces.
Some 2,800 steelworkers face redundancies under the proposals, but Tata said the alternative was plant closure with the loss of 8,000 jobs.
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