BRITAIN’S steel industry faces even more chaos after “bully boy” Tata Steel bosses said they would speed up thousands of redundancies in the face of industrial action by workers, Unite warned today.

The union accused Tata chief executive officer Rajesh Nair of threatening to cut redundancy payments and to challenge the legality of its ballot.

Unite members are to begin an overtime ban on June 18 at steelworks at Port Talbot and Llanwern in Wales.

The union now says workers will escalate their industrial action over the plan, which threatens 2,500 job losses.

Mr Nair said the outcome of the July 4 general election would “have no impact” on Tata Steel’s plans to replace traditional blast furnaces with an electric arc furnace, despite Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer promising a £3 million rescue package for the steel industry.

The threats to the workforce came on Friday night in an extraordinary 900-word statement which immediately intensified the dispute.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite and its members will not tolerate Tata’s bully boy tactics and neither should Labour.

“The union is now preparing to escalate industrial action in direct response to the company’s threats.

“The company is trying to hold the country to ransom, while needlessly throwing thousands of workers on the scrapheap.

“If Tata is not prepared to do the right thing, then an incoming Labour government must ensure it does.

“Tata’s actions show the fundamental problem with private multinational companies owning the UK’s foundation industries.

“It has no concern for the long-term economic damage and harm its action will cause in the UK.”

A Tata Steel spokesman called the package its “most generous” to date and had hoped Unite would put the revised offer to its members.

“We are now considering our legal options regarding the legality of their ballot,” he added.