Labor has said there is a “better deal to be had” with Tata over the future of its UK operations.
During a visit to Port Talbot, where thousands of jobs are at stake, shadow business minister Jonathan Reynolds called on the steel giant to wait until after next month’s general election and hold new talks.
Tata is proposing major restructuring plans at Port Talbot, including investing £1.25 billion in greener technology, but thousands of jobs will be lost during the transition period.
The company also said it would not change course in Port Talbot regardless of who wins the general election.
- Author, Huh Thomas
- Role, BBC Wales business correspondent
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Mr Reynolds promised more public money than the £500m promised by the Conservatives.
“Area [for steelmaking] will get better,” he said.
“I ask the company to work with us in good faith to benefit from that better working environment.
“And I believe there is an outcome that may not be what we all ideally want, but will work better for everyone.”
“Especially for the people here in Port Talbot.”
One worker said the threatened job losses were “a real blow”.
Jamie Jones, 45, who has worked at the site since he was 17, said concerns about redundancies could be felt by those who work there as people’s mental health is “under pressure”.
Mr Jones, a third-generation steelworker in Port Talbot, said closures had been “murmured” for a long time but the “finality of it is only now becoming clear”.
“It is difficult. You can feel it in the mood there – people’s mental health is under pressure,” he said.
‘People have mortgages, families. The fact that that place may not be able to support their families next year is hard to fathom at this point.”
Mr Jones also said the closure would have a knock-on effect on other industries in the city.
“For every job at Tata there are probably four or five other jobs: the cafes in town, the newsagents that rely on steelworkers to keep them going. So it will be huge if that place goes,” he said.
He added that he hoped whichever party won the general election would introduce a new industrial strategy that would help save jobs in Port Talbot.
“Hopefully the unions and Tata can come together and save jobs for future generations,” he said.
But in a message to staff, Tata chief executive Rajesh Nair warned that “neither the general election nor its outcome will have any impact” on the decision to close both blast furnaces at the end of September.
It is a move the company says is essential to limit financial losses and pave the way for greener steel production in South Wales.
In October, the British government announced it would give Tata a £500 million grant towards the £1.25 billion cost of a new electric arc furnace.
The new furnace will melt scrap steel and put an end to the current carbon-intensive method of producing liquid iron from rock.
Tata Steel has consistently argued that the Port Talbot plant was losing £1 million a day, and that any move towards greener steel production would also have to address financial losses.
The unions had called for a longer transition period, with at least one blast furnace remaining operational until the electric arc furnace is operational.
But Tata has confirmed it will go ahead with the closure of the heavy section at Port Talbot by the end of September, while construction work on the electric oven is expected to start in August 2025.
A transition council has been established to coordinate support and training options for affected employees.
The UK government has committed £80 million to the fund, while Tata Steel has committed £20 million.
What do the other political parties say?
The Welsh Conservatives said they were committed to ensuring that steel production in Port Talbot would continue and be safe for the future by supporting the transition to electric arc furnaces.
They said the UK government was investing £500 million in the new ovens, and setting up a £100 million transition fund to support worker retraining.
Millions were also invested in the wider South West Wales economy with the Celtic Freeport, which is estimated to create thousands of highly skilled, well-paid jobs.
“This is in stark contrast to the Labor government in Wales, which has not spent a cent on the transition,” a spokesperson said.
In response, the Welsh Government said it is expanding eligibility to £25 million support schemes such as ReAct so that Tata employees and those in the supply chain can benefit.
Checkered CymruEconomy and energy spokesman Luke Fletcher MS said Wales’ economy was being held back by the Westminster parties, while Labor was not providing the hopeful vision Wales so desperately needed.
“From thousands of well-paid and highly skilled jobs at risk in South Wales, to Westminster’s failure to give Wales the powers we need to control our own economic destiny – we know this is not good as possible,” he said. said.
He said the party’s Green New Deal set out an economic vision that offered “rewarding, meaningful and fair work” in the emerging green and net zero sector.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats said Welsh workers could not be “set aside and treated as collateral damage”.
“If the government does not act, the local community and the wider economy of the region will be devastated,” a spokesperson said.
The party is calling for a long-term vision for the steel industry, both in Wales and across the UK, saying the Conservatives have ‘completely failed to deliver’.
The spokesperson added: “Welsh Liberal Democrats have been pushing for years for a modernization plan that would save jobs and switch to green steel. France, Germany and others are doing this, but the conservatives have been asleep at the wheel.”
The Reform Party said there was every possibility the steelworks would be “the next victim of both the Labor and Conservative governments’ net-zero vanity project.”
A spokesperson added: “Three blast furnaces have just been completed in India, making a mockery of the situation Port Talbot now finds itself in.
“Importantly, in such precarious times we need our steel for our defense industry. We will then be dependent on other countries for supply. The quality will certainly be inferior compared to Port Talbot.”
The party said both main parties were “obsessed” with net zero, adding that clean air cannot be achieved through knee-jerk reactions.