By Alec Thraves Unite has announced a significant ‘Yes’ vote result in their ballot for industrial actionat Port Talbot and Llanwern.All four bargaining units, across the two sites, returned a ‘Yes’ vote showing thedetermination of the majority of the1,500 Unite members to defend their jobs andsave the industry and protect the local communities.With the average age of a Unite Port ...

By Alec Thraves (Swansea Socialist Party and Swansea Trades Union Council) Tata Steel bosses are now stepping up their ‘non-negotiable’ plan to shut the two remaining blast furnaces at its Port Talbot site, something the Socialist Party has consistently raised is on the cards. This means the loss of almost 2,000 steel jobs and a knock-on affect to thousands more ...

By Alec Thraves (Swansea Socialist Party and Swansea Trades Council) Tata’s shock announcement, that it will be shutting down all of its Port Talbot coke ovens within a couple of days, will just confirm what most steelworkers already knew and what the Socialist Party has long warned: that there can be no trust in Tata! As part of the fight ...

Nationalisation Not Devastation! By Alec Thraves (Vice President, Swansea Socialist Party) Hundreds of steelworkers, trade unionists and Port Talbot residents marched through the town today to demand that Tata Steel steps back from its threat to sack 2,000 workers as it scales down the Tata plant at Port Talbot. Also today Newport workers marched to prevent job losses at the ...

By Alec Thraves Tata Steel bosses have declared the start of a legally obliged, 45-day formal consultation process which could culminate in the initial loss of 2,423 jobs across the UK, with 1,929 of those in Port Talbot, representing exactly half the workforce. Tata’s phoney war is over after TV Narendran, the global chief executive of Tata Steel and the ...

Nationalisation NOT Devastation! By Alec Thraves (Swansea Socialist Party & Vice President of Swansea Trades Council) In the run up to Xmas, Steel workers and residents remain on the edge of an economic and social precipice yet again! Tactical differences on how to respond to Tata’s threat of a jobs slaughter have emerged between the steel unions. The Community union and GMB ...

By Alec Thraves The proposal by the Tory Government and Tata Steel for the Port Talbot plant to shut down its two blast furnaces and replace them with ‘greener’ electric arc furnaces, requiring thousands less workers, have provoked anger and panic amongst the workforce, steel unions and the local community. Electric arc furnaces would basically turn the works into a ...

By Alec Thraves (Swansea Trades Council and Socialist Party) Hundreds of NASUWT members walked out of secondary schools across Swansea to support one of their colleagues who is being victimised by Swansea’s Labour controlled council. 92% voted for strike action to defend a male teacher who intervened to stop two boys fighting. After being initially disciplined, the teacher was exonerated ...

By Alec Thraves (Socialist Party Wales) Storm clouds are a common feature in this part of South Wales but there has been a permanent economic dark cloud over Port Talbot for several years because of the constant threat of the closure of the Tata Steel plant which employs around 4000 workers and is the beating heart of the town and ...

By Alec Thraves As part of the national campaign against the employers attempts at the de-skilling of construction electricians, Unite electricians were joined by Swansea Trades Council and Swansea Socialist Party members leafleting and discussing these attacks with dozens of workers entering the site. Obviously not all the construction workers who were going into the site were electricians but the ...