Tata has threatened to close its Port Talbot steelworks next week over the Unite strikes.
The Indian conglomerate said it will close the last blast furnace at its South Wales site three months earlier than planned as union members prepare to strike.
Tata was expected to close one of the facilities by the end of the month and the second in September as it pushes ahead with its net-zero emissions plans.
The government has given it a £500m bailout to switch to electric arc furnaces to cut carbon emissions.
Nearly 3,000 steelworkers face redundancy over the proposals, but Tata said the alternative was to close the plant with the loss of 8,000 jobs. The plan has faced criticism from politicians, unions and industry experts who said it puts the future of the British steel industry at risk.
Threat: Tata said it will close the final blast furnace at the South Wales site three months earlier than planned.
Unite leader Sharon Graham said yesterday that Tata’s statement was the latest “in a long series of threats that will not deter us”.
And the Labor Party has urged Tata to wait for a potential Keir Starmer-led government after the July 4 election for further talks on the crisis.
A Tata spokesperson said the company is “unfortunately forced to take legal action to challenge the validity of the Unite vote.” Tata said he will have “no choice” but to close the furnaces early if the strike means he will not be able to operate them safely.
The spokesperson added: “This is not a decision we would take lightly and we recognise it would be extremely costly and disruptive across the supply chain, but the safety of people in or around our facilities will always take priority over everything else.”
Around 1,500 Tata workers are preparing to go on an indefinite strike from 8 July over plans to cut 2,800 jobs and close the Port Talbot blast furnaces. It is the first time in more than 40 years that steelworkers in the UK have gone on strike.
The move comes after Unite members in Port Talbot started working last week under the rules and a ban on overtime.
Unite’s Graham said: “Tata’s publication of a statement to close or pause its blast furnaces three months ahead of schedule is the latest in a long line of threats which will not deter us.” The Unite campaign is not about selling jobs, but about securing the long-term future of steelmaking in this country for thousands of workers in Port Talbot and South Wales.
“We call on the real decision makers in Mumbai to take charge of this conflict, sit down, negotiate and realize that the assured investment will be good for the company and the workers.”
Simon Cran-McGreehin, head of analysis at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, said: ‘This news will obviously be hugely worrying for plant workers, and it need not have been. A planned transition to future-proof technologies, including hydrogen, could have saved many more jobs.’