A few months ago, Tata bosses threw down the gauntlet to Port Talbot steelworkers. These bloodsuckers threatened to withdraw their redundancy package offer from any workers taking strike action.
This came on top of their cynical statements about needing to ‘go green’ – used to justify Tata’s decision to throw the community on the scrapheap by closing down Port Talbot’s blast furnaces.
The bosses clearly think workers are too stupid to know that Tata is opening new blast furnaces in India!
Tata thought they had things sewn up. They thought their blackmail would be enough to scare workers into meekly accepting this jobs massacre. They were wrong.
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Coordinated action
On 8 July, 1,500 Unite members in Port Talbot will begin an all-out indefinite strike.
Community and GMB – the other steel unions – also have active strike ballots. Union leaders must now use these to declare coordinated industrial action. Unite members should not be left to fight alone. Unity is strength. There is no time to waste.
Once these strikes are declared, rank-and-file workers should be involved in decision-making through regular mass shop-floor meetings.
To this end, cross-union rank-and-file strike committees should be elected to coordinate action; to organise a mass campaign, with appeals to the local area and the rest of the labour movement for solidarity and support; and to make preparations for escalation if the bosses don’t budge, including a workers’ occupation.
Importantly, the trade union movement must demand nationalisation – without compensation – of all industries threatened with closure.
Labour to the rescue?
Unfortunately, however, the union leaders are not currently demanding this.
All three steel unions are still ‘waiting for Labour’ – asking Tata bosses to hold off until a Starmer government is in place, which they hope will come to the rescue with extra subsidies for steel bosses.
Indeed, the union leaders’ whole strategy seems to revolve around this, with strike action only now planned to start following the general election, after months of dithering and delay.
This approach is totally wrong. All this does is sow illusions in the incoming Labour government, with hopes that Starmer will come in and save the day. But with closure looming imminently, this is a dangerous game to play.
Starmer and his cronies have made it crystal clear whose side they stand on. They intend to govern for big business, not workers – hence their constant hokey-cokey around their so-called ‘new deal for working people’, alongside their endless overtures to the City of London.
Labour has pledged £3bn worth of investment in the UK steel industry. But given Starmer’s track record, it’s clear that these promises aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
In any case, such deals have been tried with Tata and other industry bosses before. And the result is always the same: a slow bleed of jobs while the can is kicked down the road, with the parasitic owners eventually pulling the plug once they’ve sucked all the profits they can out of workers and taxpayers.
Instead of throwing more public money into the capitalists’ pockets, the labour movement should be demanding – and fighting for – nationalisation, without a penny in compensation for these fat-cats.
Fighting mood
On the ground, feelings are beginning to boil. The general mood at a recent steelworkers’ rally, attended by RCP comrades, was lively. Pointedly, many of the steelworkers we spoke to were frustrated at how long it has taken for the unions to get to this point.
Many told us that they want a real fight against Tata, before it’s too late. They understand that there is no hope for the steelworks if opposition is left purely to behind-the-scenes negotiations or to vague promises from an untrustworthy Labour party.
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Having been infuriated by Tata’s heavy-handed attempts at bullying, we can safely say that these workers are not prepared to quit at the first hurdle. Future action must be based on this determination and fighting spirit.
What is needed is an all-out campaign to force the incoming Labour government to nationalise the steel industry, without compensation.
We don’t want more empty promises. And we shouldn’t have any faith in yet more backroom talks and deals. Only militant, sustained action – including preparations for occupation – can make Labour take the steps necessary to save Port Talbot.
Workers’ control
This fighting campaign should not be limited to Port Talbot, either. In Scunthorpe, British Steel are planning a similar jobs massacre, with the bosses looking to close the blast furnace there also.
It is high time that these struggles were linked up, into a single all-out battle for the future of Britain’s steel industry.
This would electrify workers across every industry and workplace where jobs are under threat. It would show them that they don’t have to accept the arguments of the capitalists when it comes to their lives and livelihoods. And it would demonstrate to workers that if they stand up and fight, they can win.
More fundamentally, a wave of militant action must be used to offer a clear, bold message: that our class is no longer prepared to have its future decided by others.
This means making the case for workers’ control across industry.
The bosses have proven time and again that they will send whole towns to the wall, if that helps them maintain their profit margins.
Only by taking our destiny out of their hands, by democratically and harmoniously planning production in the interests of the working class, can we put an end to the capitalists’ threats.
It’s time to take up this fight. It’s time to win.
Solidarity to the steelworkers! Victory to Port Talbot! Strike, occupy, and fight for workers’ control!
