The four unions have offered Tata pension savings of £850 million (US $1.3 billion).
The first national steel strike in the UK for 35 years will start for a day on 22 June as 17,000 Tata Steel workers will walk off the job protesting proposed pension cuts from the Indian industrial conglomerate that owns Jaguar Land Rover. Workers will also refuse overtime and work to rule starting the middle of next week.
Tata Steel UK’s pension deficit has dramatically increased since 2011. The unions say there were considerable worker concessions made during the financial crisis, but Tata is attempting to make workers foot the bill for a claimed shortfall of £2 billion pension fund deficit. Tata did not respond to AuotInformed’s request for comment.
The four major unions at Tata: Community, Unite, GMB and UCATT. Community, Unite and GMB are affiliates of IndustriALL Global Union. UCATT organizes construction workers and affiliates to the Building and Woodworkers’ International.
General Secretary Raina IndustriALL said that the UK unions have been ready to discuss alternative measures since last November.
Tata’s closing of the British Steel pension scheme would mean that workers will lose 25% of their pensions, unless they work an extra five years beyond the current 60-year old retirement age.
Tata bought British Steel’s remaining operations 2007 when it bought Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, for £6.7bn in a highly-leveraged debt-ridden deal.
Tata Steel UK has four sites in Wales: Port Talbot, Llanwern, Shotton and Trostre, as well as Motherwell in Scotland, and Corby, Scunthorpe, Redcar, Rotherham, Hartlepool, Walsall and Wednesbury in England.
