Socialist Party Wales Socialism In Wales
By Alec Thraves (Swansea Socialist Party and Swansea Trades Council)
In a bold and decisive escalation of industrial action, Unite the union has announced
the beginning of indefinite strike action at Tata’s Port Talbot and Llanwern plants
from July 8th.
This move will be welcomed by many steelworkers, community campaigners and the
wider trade union movement who are determined to retain primary steel production,
secure all the steel jobs and to provide a future for the younger generation in Port
Talbot, Newport and the surrounding areas.
Tata’s intransigent and bullying methods are being confronted by a Unite
membership who recognise that militant industrial action is the only language this
brutal multi-national corporation understands!
Community and GMB unions, who have also voted for industrial action, should now
urgently engage with their members to join Unite in their all-out strike action in a
united front against this vicious employer!
Four days after the certain return of a Labour government, Starmer will face his first
test in defending working class struggle or bending to Tata’s big business plans for a
jobs and community devastation.
Keir Starmer, Prime Minister in waiting and Vaughan Gething, the Labour Welsh first
minister, should use the election campaign to announce the immediate
nationalisation of Tata steel as the first priority of the incoming Labour government at
Westminster.
Tata bosses have arrogantly and contemptibly dismissed both the Unite and the
Community/GMB proposals for a transition to green steel production and are
insistent both furnaces are shut down, with several thousand direct Tata employees
and contractors losing their jobs!
Bringing Tata back to the negotiating table with ‘a better deal for steel’ is
unfortunately, a ship that has long sailed away, and there is a growing recognition
amongst steelworkers and their supporters that the £billions investment needed to
secure a green transition can only come from direct government intervention and
public ownership!
This pending industrial battle has to be politically linked up to the demand for
nationalisation of steel under democratic workers control and management, with
compensation paid only on the basis of proven need – which means no
compensation to the Tata bosses!
Steelworkers and their communities will expect to see newly elected Labour MP’s on
their picket lines promoting that demand.
The Wales TUC must also enact their recent Congress’s call for all-out support for
the steelworkers by mobilising their affiliated unions to form part of the mass picket
lines that will be necessary on July 8 th , the first day of strike action!
This is a battle that can be won and we must mobilise both industrially and politically
to save steel, save jobs and save our communities!
Nationalisation not Devastation!
