'We're mourning our heritage': Port Talbot Steelworker reflects on what furnace closure means for his community

1 October 2024, 13:18 | Updated: 1 October 2024, 14:13

Frustration and mourning.

Those are the two emotions that I would say I’m feeling the most at this moment. Frustration because this didn’t need to happen. The steelworkers’ union Community has been calling for investment in our steel industry for years. We’ve been arguing, demanding, begging the previous Tory Government to deliver the investment we needed to protect our blast furnaces and deliver a just transition to greener steel making in Port Talbot.

Instead of taking the bold action necessary they ignored us, they dithered and delayed leaving it too late. When they finally came forward with an investment offer for our industry it wasn’t one that would revitalise our steel industry. No. Instead we got a deal that’s leading to hard redundancies and the closure of our blast furnaces.

Let’s be absolutely clear that this was not the only option. Tata Steel and the Tories could have moved forward with Community and GMB’s Multi-Union plan for steel. They chose not to, that choice is what’s left us where we are today and tied the hands of unions and Labour, leaving us to fight for the best possible enhanced package we could. It’s so frustrating, angering even, that had we not wasted 14 years we could be talking positively today and not mourning.

Because that’s exactly what everyone in Port Talbot is doing today. The name Port Talbot might be traced back to the 1800s, but the soul and identity of Port Talbot began in 1923 and 1951 when we became the town of steel. It’s Port Talbot steel, forged with our, our fathers’, and our grandfathers’ hands, that built the very bones of the modern UK. Almost wherever you stand in Port Talbot you can turn and see the steam from the furnaces, or the blast furnaces themselves as a metal monument to the heritage and history of our town.

We’re mourning the loss of that heritage, a constant piece of us that has brought so much opportunity and pride to our town being lost. But we’re also mourning what could have been. We’re mourning that alternative future that could have been delivered by the Multi-Union plan, or if the Tory Governments of the past had the ambition and commitment to match that of our proud steelworkers.

Today is mourning, today is frustration, but tomorrow we’ll continue to fight for our industry, our town, and the better future that we know can still be won.

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Alan Coombs is a steel worker and Community Union member at Port Talbot.

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