Unite steel ballot victory

By Alec Thraves

Unite has announced a significant ‘Yes’ vote result in their ballot for industrial action
at Port Talbot and Llanwern.
All four bargaining units, across the two sites, returned a ‘Yes’ vote showing the
determination of the majority of the1,500 Unite members to defend their jobs and
save the industry and protect the local communities.
With the average age of a Unite Port Talbot steelworker at just 36, it is clear that
future jobs and security are far more important than the financial bribes that Tata has
dangled in front of the workforce.
Tata steel continue their bullying tactics by threatening legal action, claiming
‘significant irregularities in the ballot process’! With no interest in serious negotiations
with the unions to preserve the primary steel making process under a green
transition, Tata’s only objective now is the shutting down of the blast furnaces and
the decommissioning of the heavy end, which has already started with the recent
closure of the coke ovens.
The Community union, whose members primarily work at the threatened ‘heavy end’
of the plant started their ballot for industrial action on April 11th , with the result due in
a month’s time on May 9th . This Unite ballot victory will undoubtedly be a big boost to
the confidence of Community members, the largest steel union, alongside the small
GMB membership, who have also started balloting, to vote ‘Yes’ and prepare for
united action against this brutal employer.
Unite’s positive result has given them a 6-month window for industrial action, which
can now be used for all the steel unions to prepare together in united action to save
the plant.
As the Socialist Party has consistently repeated, there can be no trust in Tata to
invest the billions of pounds necessary to save primary steel making. The demand for
Nationalisation not Devastation has widespread support across the communities and
crucially within the workforce.
Malcolm Gullam, a Unite retired steelworker, commented after the result that ‘Now is
the time to push Labour into announcing it will renationalise as soon as a new
government is formed’!
That demand is getting a huge echo and must be the central platform for the trade
union leaders to act upon.