In a joint statement, Community general secretary Roy Rickhuss and Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB, said: “Regretfully we couldn’t secure the support of all stakeholders for our credible alternative decarbonisation strategy, and ultimately the company rejected the basis of our proposals, representing a tragic missed opportunity.
“Under the circumstances representatives of all the steel unions resolved to negotiate the best possible deal, and then put it to a ballot of the membership. This is what we have done, and voting is underway.”
The Conservatives accused Labour of raising false hope that a better deal was on offer, and said the government had finally realised the Tories had done their best to save steelmaking.
Tory Senedd economy and energy spokesman Samuel Kurtz said ministers had been “disingenuous with their promises to the people of Wales and fallen short with their new offer, putting steelworker jobs at risk”.
“Unfortunately, there is no new money yet allocated by the Labour government that promised much more during the election campaign,” he said.
Plaid Cymru business and trade spokesperson at Westminster Llinos Medi said losing capacity to make virgin steel was a “serious economic blunder” that will “devastate the communities of Port Talbot”.
“Unions have previously called for additional investment of £683m in Port Talbot to save jobs,” she said. “Meanwhile Germany has invested 1.3 billion euros in decarbonising steel in one region alone this year.
“Can the secretary of state [Reynolds] explain why he won’t match the ambition of workers here and governments of other countries to save Welsh steel?”
Recently retired steelworker Huw Samuel said the upcoming closure of the second blast furnace will signal the end of an era.
“We did foresee the decarbonisation of the industry. However, I don’t think any of us would have predicted how quickly Tata would have made a decision and decided to shut down the coke ovens,” he said.
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