- Author, Steve Duffy
- Role, BBC news
Threatened job losses at Tata’s Port Talbot steelworks have “really hit”, an employee has said.
Jamie Jones, 45, who has worked at the site since he was 17, said people who work there can feel anxious about being made redundant, with people’s mental health “under pressure”.
Tata is proposing major restructuring plans at Port Talbot, including a £1.25 billion investment in greener technology, but thousands of jobs will disappear during the transition period.
The company also said it would not change course in Port Talbot, regardless of who wins the general election.
Mr Jones, a third-generation steelworker in Port Talbot, said there had long been “whispers” of closure but that “its finality is now really within reach”.
“It’s tough. You can feel it in the mood – people’s mental health is under pressure,” he said.
“People have mortgages, families. The fact that this place doesn’t have to support their families next year is tough right now.”
Mr Jones also said the closure would have a knock-on effect on other industries in the town.
“For every Tata job, there are probably four or five other jobs – the coffee shops in the city, the newsagents that rely on the steel workers to keep them going. So if that place goes, it’s going to be massive,” he said.
He added that he hoped whichever party won the general election would introduce a new industrial strategy to help save jobs in Port Talbot.
“Hopefully the unions and Tata will come together and save jobs for future generations,” he said.
But Tata chief executive Rajesh Nair warned in a memo to staff that “the general election or its outcome has no bearing” on the decision to close the two blast furnaces by the end of September.
It’s a move the company says is necessary to reduce financial losses and pave the way for greener steelmaking in South Wales.
In October, the UK government announced it would give Tata a £500m grant towards the cost of a new £1.25bn electric arc furnace.
The new furnace will melt scrap steel and end the current carbon-intensive method of producing liquid iron from rock.
Tata Steel has consistently claimed that its Port Talbot works were losing £1m a day and that any move towards greener steelmaking would also have to address financial losses.
The union wanted a longer transition period that would keep at least one blast furnace in operation until the electric arc furnace was in operation.
However, Tata has confirmed it will continue to close the heavy end at Port Talbot until the end of September, with construction work on the electric furnace due to start in August 2025.
An interim board has been established to coordinate support and training opportunities for disabled workers.
The UK government has pledged £80m to the fund, while Tata Steel has committed £20m.
What do the political parties say?
The Welsh Conservatives have said they are committed to ensuring that steelmaking takes place in Port Talbot and is future-proofed by supporting the transition to electric arc furnaces.
They said the UK government would invest £500m in new furnaces and also set up a £100m bridging fund to support retraining of workers.
“This is a huge contrast to the Labor government in Wales, which has not spent a penny on transition aid,” the spokesman said.
They added that millions have also been invested in the wider South West Wales economy with Celtic Freeport estimated to create thousands of highly skilled, well paid jobs.
Welsh work he said the steel industry was a “vital cornerstone” of the economy and “the lifeblood of communities across Wales”.
A spokesman said: “The crisis at Port Talbot is the work of a British Conservative government that has never had a serious, long-term plan for Welsh steel.
“Working with the Welsh Labor Government, the next UK Labor Government will invest £2.5 billion to secure a bright future for our steel industry – including Port Talbot – to ensure the transition to green steel brings jobs to Wales.”
Plaid CymruSociety for Economics and Energy spokesman Luke Fletcher MS said the future of steelmaking had been left to “wither on the vine” by both Labor and the Tories and he sensed no real sense of urgency from those who had the power to prevent it.
“Not only will communities in South Wales be poorer economically and socially, failure to act will leave Wales and the UK with a gap in primary steel production that can only be filled by foreign imports and risk damaging our national security. ” he said.
He said that stopping primary steel production and the damage it would cause was “simply out of the question”.
“When we talk about fairness and ambition for Wales, we mean it.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats he said Welsh workers could not be “swept aside as collateral damage”.
“If the government does not act, the local community and the wider economy of the region will be devastated,” the spokesman said.
The party is calling for a long-term vision for the steel industry, both in Wales and across the UK, and said the Conservatives had “totally failed to deliver it”.
The spokesman added: “For years the Welsh Lib Dems have been pushing for a modernization plan that would save jobs and switch to green steel. France, Germany and others are doing it but the Tories have been asleep at the wheel.”
The reform party he said there was every possibility the steelworks would be “another casualty of the zero-futility project being pushed by both the Labor and Conservative governments”.
The spokesman added: “Three blast furnaces have just been completed in India, which makes a mockery of the situation Port Talbot is in now.
“The important thing is that in such uncertain times we need our steel for our defense industry. We will then be dependent on supplies from other countries. It will certainly be of a worse quality than Port Talbot.”
The party said both major parties were “obsessed” with net zero, adding that clean air cannot be achieved through knee-jerk reactions.