Due to a scheduled strike by Unite members at the steel plant on July 8, the firm has announced that it will move the final closure date from September to July 7.
In an effort to cut carbon emissions at the UK’s single greatest emitter of CO2, one of the steel blast furnaces will close at the end of this month.
However, it appears that the second shutdown will happen next month, hastening the plant’s demise and the 2,800 jobs that will be lost—2,500 in the upcoming year and an additional 300 in three years.
That’s in spite of £500 million in taxpayer funding to help the factory switch to more affordable, environmentally friendly steel manufacturing in order to reduce emissions.
There will be one electric arc furnace in place of the former blast furnaces that used fossil fuels.
In an effort to delay any cutbacks until after the July 4 election of a new government, Labour had begged the corporation to wait.
Prominent Labour politicians, such as Jo Stevens, the shadow Welsh secretary, have pleaded with Tata to hold off on negotiations until after a potential Labour government.
