Alec Thraves, Swansea Socialist Party and Swansea Trades Council
Unite has suspended the all-out strike action it was due to start from Monday 8 July, in response to the proposed jobs slaughter by Tata Steel, after a meeting of its reps. This action has forced senior management back to the negotiating table. The fact that, until a few days before, Tata was trying to intimidate steelworkers with threats of bringing forward the closure of the two blast furnaces if the strikes went ahead will give confidence that action works and it is possible to win a victory.
However, steelworkers know well enough not to trust Tata, and they, and their unions, have to be prepared for the most serious struggle on both the industrial and political fronts.
Tata’s plan to close the two blast furnaces and replace them with electric arc production would result in thousands of direct and indirect jobs being lost, devastating working-class communities.
That is why Unite’s demand to save all jobs in the transition to green steel, backed up by militant industrial action, is the correct approach and should be supported by Community and GMB, who, despite both unions winning industrial action ballots, had not called action to join Unite on the picket lines!
But members of Community and the GMB have now seen that only being prepared to take action can have any effect on management and must demand that their respective unions now join with Unite for a serious fight.
It is abundantly clear that militant industrial action, coordinated across all steel unions could win a decisive victory, retaining all jobs and preserving virgin steelmaking at Port Talbot.
But it is essential that any industrial action is linked with political action!
If Tata bosses come back with their threat to bring forward the closure of the blast furnaces, all the steel unions must be prepared to take immediate industrial action, refuse to comply with instructions to wind down the blast furnaces, ensuring the safety of the plant and local communities.
This must be accompanied with the demand that the new Keir Starmer-led Labour government brings in emergency legislation to nationalise Tata in the same way Tory Prime Minister, Edward Heath nationalised Rolls Royce in 24 hours in 1971.
The future of steelmaking in south Wales still hangs in the balance, but the events of the last few days show that nothing has been decided yet.
Victory is possible. But to achieve that demands the building of the mood of steelworkers on the back of forcing Tata into talks. The most effective way to do this is to fight for joint militant strike action across all the steel unions if Tata maintains its plan for a jobs slaughter, and at the same time demanding that the steelworks are nationalised to save jobs and working-class communities.
