TATA STEEL bosses are to close Port Talbot steelworks’ coking ovens tomorrow — in a “betrayal” just days after suggesting they hoped to keep them open, unions charge.

The majority of the south Wales plant’s steelworkers are balloting on strike action which will start before the end of April if, as is likely, workers vote to down tools against compulsory redundancies.

Tata Steel wants to convert the steelworks to use electric arc furnaces instead of the traditional but environmentally damaging coal-fired furnaces.

The government has handed Tata Steel £500 million in taxpayers’ cash towards the conversion. But Tata last year rejected a trade union blueprint which accepted the conversion but would have saved the jobs.

Unite said Tata had given no indication that the furnace closures were imminent in recent negotiations.

The union’s Wales regional secretary Peter Hughes said: “Tata’s decision to close the coking ovens is the result of years of betrayal.

“From the start, it has set out to manage the decline of UK steel while accepting government handouts to keep operations on life support.”

He said that on Friday Tata told unions “they had hopes to improve the situation soon.”

“Just two days later and the company has announced it is closing them completely,” Mr Hughes said.

Labour has pledged £3 billion to secure the future of Britain’s steel industry if elected to government later this year.

Mr Hughes said: “Tata needs to halt its plans and wait for Labour’s promised £3bn to reinvigorate the UK’s steel industry.

“The time to fight for Port Talbot is now, which is why we are urging Tata’s workers to vote yes to strike action.

“Tata cannot be allowed to carry on its course of deliberate industrial vandalism. Unite will fight the company every step of the way.”

Alun Davies of the steelworkers’ union Community said: “Tata know the unions will not accept any compulsory redundancies and we are working to conclude negotiations on an enhanced redundancy and retention package.”

He said Community would ballot on strike action if the closure was confirmed.

Unite’s ballot of 1,500 workers closes on Tuesday April 9 and strike action could begin before the end of April. The union’s leader Sharon Graham has urged members to vote Yes in a rebuke to politicians who have “handed our steel to overseas corporations, undermined our economy and our national security… [and] let communities wither on the vine.”

A Tata Steel spokesperson said: “Much of our existing iron and steelmaking operation in Port Talbot is at the end of its life, is unreliable and inefficient, and contributing to losses of £1.7million a day in the last quarter alone.

“Our restructuring proposals would mean that we are able to sustain the business as we transition to new electric arc furnace technology."