Tata Steel job losses in focus as Keir Starmer-led UK govt takes over, union suspends strike

The newly elected UK government indicated on Sunday that it was focused on preventing job losses at Tata Steel. The Keir Starmer-led administration is reportedly in talks with the company. Up to 2,800 people can lose their jobs in the coming months as Britain's biggest steel producer begins closing two of its carbon-intensive blast furnaces.

According to a Reuters report, the government is also extending its support for the company's transition to lower-carbon technologies.

“We see this as a major priority. I'm going to make sure that job guarantees are part of the negotiation that we're having,” the BBC quoted business minister Jonathan Reynolds as saying.

Update on the Tata Steel workers' strike:

The government focus comes after workers at the country's biggest steel maker suspended a strike they had planned following a warning from the company. Tata Steel had indicated that both of its furnaces would close in advance if the strike happened.

Close to 1,500 workers at the plant sites who had begun an overtime ban on June 17th, were also about to start a strike from July 8th, according to the report.

The union paused their actions after the company confirmed that it was entering into talks about the “future investment for its operations and not just redundancies.”

“Focus on the future investments and aspirations for the business, and not on a renegotiation of our existing plan for the heavy-end closure or the enhanced employment support terms,” the report quoted a spokesperson for Tata as saying.

The newly elected Labour Party government is set to sign a 500 million pound ($635 million) support package which the prior Conservative government agreed to provide Tata Steel to build less carbon-intensive electric-arc furnaces.

Tata Steel began its plan to close one of its carbon-intensive blast furnaces on Thursday, with plans for another in September to prevent a mass walkout of workers. This could potentially lead to 2,800 job cuts in the South Wales Port Talbot Steel Plant.

The steelmaker had previously said that its assets were close to the end of their work life making them operationally unstable causing losses of nearly a million pounds. Tata Steel employs around 8,000 people in Britain.