“Workers united, will never be defeated!” a man shouts into a loud megaphone. He is part of a crowd marching through the streets of Manchester in a May Day parade organized by some of Britain’s largest trade unions.
The sun is shining and there is a festival atmosphere as his fellow demonstrators hold up posters about workers’ rights and fair pay.
Among the protesters is Jason Wyatt, a steelworker from South Wales. He’s here to shine a spotlight on what’s happening in his hometown of Port Talbot, where several thousand of his colleagues live are facing dismissal.
There is applause as Jason takes the stage.
“They are trying to destroy the livelihoods of 2,800 people,” he says. “Port Talbot is the last bastion of heavy industry in South Wales. We have to fight.”
There has been a steelworks in Port Talbot on the south coast of Wales for 125 years.
Nowadays the large, spacious area is the property of Tata Steelan Indian company that employs around half of its 8,000 people in Port Talbot.
The local economy is heavily dependent on manufacturing, which, according to the Welsh Government, provides around a fifth of the region’s jobs.
But the UK steel industry is struggling to remain competitive in a fiercely competitive global market, and that means uncertain future prospects for communities like Port Talbot.
In 2019, Great Britain produced seven million tons of steel, behind seven EU countries – including Germany with 40 million tons. China now produced 996 million tons.
Operating steel mills also incurs enormous costs because they consume enormous amounts of energy.
The Port Talbot plant has by far the highest bill, consuming as much electricity as the entire city of Swansea, which lies just a few miles down the motorway.
The sums don’t add up, says Tata Steel. The company claims its UK business is losing £1 million a day.
The other major problem facing the company and its Port Talbot plant is pollution. The steelworks is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the UK.
And Tata believes that moving away from its existing coal-fired blast furnace and towards a greener way of making steel – using scrap metal as fuel – could reduce the UK’s overall carbon emissions by around 1.5 percent.
The British government has agreed to pay Tata £500 million to build a new electric arc furnace.
However, according to Tata, this would require the closure of the two remaining blast furnaces, which would lead to the loss of 2,800 jobs.
The push to go green is costing jobs in Port Talbot. And this is a dilemma facing businesses across the UK – and around the world.
“Tata is asking people to save the company by losing their jobs. This is terrible,” says Jason, who has worked at the Port Talbot plant for 25 years.
It is estimated that about 1.3 million workers in carbon-intensive so-called “brown” jobs will need to adapt to cleaner technologies and processes, according to think tank Resolution Foundation.
But the figures on the costs of environmentally friendly implementation are controversial.
The TUC estimates that without government support, 800,000 manufacturing and supply chain jobs could be lost.
While the Climate Change Committee, an independent body set up by the government in 2008, says between 8,000 and 75,000 jobs could be lost as a result of the transition.
According to the government, the UK has become the first major economy to halve its emissions – and is leading the way in transforming the energy sector. Since 2020, over 80,000 green jobs are currently being supported or are being planned.
“Much of the transferable expertise from industries such as steel mills and oil and gas will be critical to the transition to net zero,” a government spokesman said.
“And our Green Jobs Plan will ensure we have sufficient skills to meet new and future workforce needs across the economy.”
It’s hot inside the facility and the smell of sulfur hangs in the air, a byproduct of the manufacturing process. Peter Quinn leads Tata’s transition to green steel.
He says the idea that the arc furnace could be operational in four years is still “approximate” and that consultations with stakeholders, including workers, need to be completed first.
Unions and local politicians have called on Tata to keep one blast furnace in operation while the new one is built. But Tata says this is not cost effective.
Quinn says the only other option is to abandon steel production in Port Talbot altogether.
Jason believes Tata should opt for a more gradual transition that would avoid the need for layoffs.
“We are not against the green steel agenda,” he says. “What we reject is the way we make change.”
This change is already affecting his family. His son Tyler is 19 and was hoping to apply for an apprenticeship at Tata.
“I’m at a point in my life where I need to start securing my future, buying a house and settling down somewhere,” says Tyler. “But it’s too risky now to believe there are chances.” [at Tata] For me.”
Jason Wyatt on the beach with his family
As Jason and his family take their dogs for a windswept walk along the city’s beach, their eyes fall on the harbor, where the cranes used to unload iron ore from around the world dominate the view.
But out at sea there may be hope on the horizon. There are plans for a huge wind farm in the Celtic Sea with enough wind turbines to power four million homes.
And Tata hopes it can manufacture the football field-sized platforms on which the turbines will sit.
But this potential new chapter in Britain’s journey towards a greener economy still seems too far away for steelworkers.
Ashley Curnow, area manager for Associated British Ports in Wales, hopes towns along the coast such as Port Talbot will benefit from the new development.
“I understand that there is a lot of concern across the community right now and I think our job on this project is to get the project done as quickly as possible and advance these employment opportunities.”
At home, Jason and his family think about what the future might hold.
His wife Stacey believes Tata treats its workers unfairly.
“I think what Tata Steel is doing to its workers is wrong. They don’t really care about the impact it will have on people and their families.”
“It’s a difficult time for all of us,” adds Jason. “We have this have to fight to protect our livelihoods.”