UK steel jobs safe after multinational commits to plants
LONDON — Over 4,000 jobs that were at risk at a steel plant in Port Talbot, Wales, have been secured after unions got a commitment from multinational Tata Steel to keep production there.
The announcement Wednesday that Tata would keep two blast furnaces operating for five years came after hours of meetings with union leaders. Compulsory redundancies will be avoided but unions say the revised pension plan remains “worrying.”
“This proposal would secure jobs for years to come and bring serious investment not just to Port Talbot but to steelworks across the U.K.,” said Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community union. “Reaching this stage of the process is a credit to the hard work of our members, who never gave up the fight to ‘Save Our Steel’ — it was their jobs on the line and it has been their campaign that has brought Tata to this position.”
The future of the plant and others around the U.K. had been in doubt since March when Tata Steel, based in India, announced plans to sell its U.K. operations.