In January 2024, Tata Steel confirmed that it would shut down its Port Talbot blast furnaces with the loss of 2,800 jobs. This announcement came a few months after it was confirm the company would received £500 million subsidies from the government to transition its site to electric ARC furnaces, raising questions on how a 'green' transition should happen to the detriment of workers and their communities.

Join our online event "Climate Justice for Steel Workers" with Unite rep Jason Wyatt, Steel worker at Port Talbot.

And contributions from:

• Jan Hines , local resident of Port Talbot with family ties to the Steel Works, frontline support worker and climate activist with XR Cymru
• Claire Peden, Unite for a Workers Economy
• John Morrissey, Swansea Unite Community Branch Chair and Environmental rep
• Ellen Robottom, Unite Community Leeds and Campaign against climate change Trade Union group
• Morten Taysen, NEON (New Economy Organisers Network)

Workers and their Trade Unions have been fighting against the job losses and put forward alternative plans to save jobs that would delay the closure of the blast furnaces to preserve jobs. They fear that the remaining Steel communities will be exposed to the same faith that of mining communities in the 1980s. It is crucial for the Climate Justice movement to stand in solidarity with workers as the Transition starts. Workers shouldn't pay the price and the Transition should be Just and workers-led.

As industries start shifting away from fossil fuels industries, how can the Climate Justice movement support workers and their union in Port Talbot or Scunthorpe? If we want wind power to be at the heart of of renewable energy production system, shouldn't we need strong steel production in the UK? What does the employer's "Transition" looks like and why should Climate activists support the Workers Plans?

For more info, read this background paper by the Campaign Against Climate Change and this blog by the Greener Jobs Alliance. You can read Unite's Workers Plan for Port Talbot here and the Unite campaign page here.