PROTESTING steelworkers warned today that the communities at Port Talbot in South Wales and Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire face the same fate as mining communities wrecked by pit closures.

Members of union Unite rallied outside job centres in the two communities against plans to slash 2,500 jobs by employer Tata Steel.

Civil Service union PCS, whose members work in the job centres, is supporting the steelworkers’ campaign.

Unite said that like mining communities, steel towns will face the long-term consequences of the butchery of jobs including increased unemployment, worse health outcomes and greater reliance on benefits.

Tata plans to shut down its coal-fired blast furnaces at Port Talbot and replace them with more environment-friendly electric arc furnaces.

The government is handing Tata £500 million in taxpayers’ cash to help with the transition.

Steel unions have drawn up an alternative plan which would save the jobs while the transition goes ahead, but Tata has rejected it.

Steelworkers are to be balloted on strike action.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The fight to prevent Port Talbot suffering the kind of economic devastation inflicted on Britain’s coal-mining communities is now. 

“The UK steel industry can have a bright future, if it is supported like those in Germany, France and Holland. The right choices just have to be made.

“Unite is working night and day to save jobs and will begin balloting our Tata members for strike action next week. 

“We will also use every weapon in our armoury to keep the pressure on Tata and our politicians until these plans are stopped.”

PCS general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “We call on the government to intervene to prevent this devastating act of industrial vandalism.”

She said PCS members working in job centres will also be affected by the job losses which would “rip the heart” out of Port Talbot.

“To rub salt into their wounds the closure of the blast furnaces will mean that these already massively overworked PCS members will have to deal with thousands of additional claimants,” she said.