Tata Steel and unions in crunch meeting over Port Talbot

(Sharecast News) - Workers at Tata Steel's Port Talbot plant were bracing for swingeing job cuts on Thursday, as company officials met with unions to discuss the steelworks' future. Executives from Tata Steel, including chief executive TV Narendran, are understood to have flown in to the UK from India for the talks in London.

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community steel union, conceded he was "braced for bad news".

But he added: "If Tata is not prepared to listen then we could be heading towards a very significant industrial dispute."

The GMB union, meanwhile, told the BBC that compulsory job losses were "wholly avoidable".

The future of the UK's largest steelworks has been uncertain for some time. The sprawling plant has two aging coal-powered blast furnaces and is the UK's largest single carbon emitter.

Last September, the government confirmed it would provide Tata Steel - part of Indian conglomerate Tata Group - with a £500m grant to help switch to greener forms of steelmaking.

Tata will provide a further £750m.

But unions warned at the time that thousands of jobs would likely be affected as a result.

Up to 3,000 jobs are expected to be lost, the bulk of which are likely to be at the Welsh plant. The Port Talbot steelworks employs around 4,000 people and is the region's biggest employer.

In a statement, Tata said it was "committed to meaningful information sharing and consultation with our trade union partners about the plan to develop sustainable steelmaking in the UK and to find solutions for concerns they may have".

A formal announcement is expected within days of the meeting.