Tata Steel Seeks Legal Action In Tussle With Union Over UK Plant

(Bloomberg) -- Tata Steel Ltd. has raised the ante in its tussle with UK’s labor union over its decision to close blast furnaces in the Welsh town of Port Talbot by threatening legal action.

“Following the announcement by Unite Union to unilaterally call strike action from 8 July, Tata Steel is unfortunately forced to commence legal action to challenge the validity of Unite’s ballot,” a spokesperson for the Indian steelmaker said in an emailed statement.

Britain’s Unite union on June 21 said around 1,500 workers based in the towns of Port Talbot and Llanwern will strike indefinitely starting July 8 to protest the 2,800 jobs that would be lost following the closure of the furnaces.

Read: Tata Steel UK Workers Call Indefinite Strike Over Job Cuts

The company will “not have any choice but to pause or stop heavy end operations” - including both blast furnaces - on the Port Talbot site in the coming days, if it cannot be certain that it can “continue to safely and stably operate” through the period of strike action.

Tata Steel is one of Britain’s biggest steelmakers. In April, the company said it would proceed with a £1.25 billion ($1.6 billion) plan to build an electric arc furnace at Port Talbot and start closing existing heavy-end assets.

“That is not a decision we would take lightly, and we recognize that it would prove extremely costly and disruptive throughout the supply chain,” Tata said in the statement.

The union, on its part, is undeterred in its objective, calling the strike action about “securing the long-term future of steel making” in the UK.

“Tata putting out a statement to shut or pause its blast furnaces three months earlier than they intended to is the latest In a long line of threats that won’t deter us,” Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said in a statement.

“We call on the real decision makers in Mumbai to take hold of this dispute, sit down, negotiate and realise that the investment secured will be good for the company and workers,” Graham said, adding the union had “secured serious investment from Labour to safeguard jobs.”

Meanwhile, the Financial Times reported that Unite is now considering allowing some of its workers to keep working in order to ensure the safe operation of the furnaces at Port Talbot. The move comes after the union was urged to do so by the Labour party leadership, the newspaper cites people close to the talks as saying.

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