HUNDREDS of south Wales steelworkers will take to the streets for a series of rallies in support of the industry on Saturday.

The public rally will start at the Civic Centre Square in Port Talbot with addresses by local politicians and union representatives from Unite, GMB and Community.

Tata Steel UK confirmed it would be shutting down two of Port Talbot works’ blast furnaces with a loss of 2,800 jobs last month, having secured a £500 million government bung for its £1.25 billion four-year plan to build electric arc furnaces (EAFs).

It said about 200 positions would be saved by maintaining operations at the site’s hot strip mill and some temporary jobs would be created while constructing the EAFs.

Community assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said:  “We are urging Tata and the UK government to reconsider the destructive path they are taking us down and to look again at the credible alternative, which is already on the table in the form of the multi-union plan Community and GMB have put forward.

“That plan now has the backing of a range of industry experts, the Labour Party and members of the Senedd across all parties.”

Aberavon MP Stephen Kinnock said: “The Tata deal does not work for decarbonisation, does not work for our economy and it does not work for our national security.

“Now is not the time for Tata to rush ahead on an irreversible and deeply damaging course of action.”

Newport East MP Jessica Morden added that the plan “represents the credible alternative to the Tata-UK government bad deal for steel, and secures a just transition for workers whilst avoiding the need for any compulsory redundancies.”

Unite has put forward a separate £12bn plan to revive British steelmaking over 12 years.