Tata Steel announced on Friday that it plans to take legal action to challenge the validity of a steelworkers’ union strike ballot. The company also warned that its blast furnaces at Port Talbot may need to pause operations due to the industrial action.
The steel major, headquartered in Mumbai, had initially intended to shut down one of the blast furnaces by the end of June and the second one by September. However, due to Unite the Union’s proposed strike from July 8, the closure might be forced to happen earlier.
In response to Unite Union’s announcement of unilateral strike action from July 8, a Tata Steel spokesperson stated, “Tata Steel is unfortunately forced to commence legal action to challenge the validity of Unite’s ballot.”
The spokesperson added, “If we cannot be certain that we are able to safely and stably operate our assets during the strike action, we will have no choice but to pause or stop heavy end operations, including both blast furnaces, at the Port Talbot site. This is not a decision we would take lightly, and we recognize that it would be extremely costly and disruptive throughout the supply chain. However, the safety of people on or around our sites will always take priority over everything else.”
