STEEL unions reacted with fury today after Tata Steel threatened to speed up the closure of its Port Talbot blast furnaces in response to three-quarters of GMB Wales members backing strike action.

The ballot ended with 83 per cent of workers voting for action short of a strike and 72 per cent backing walkouts.

Tata Steel bosses have threatened to withdraw a proposed redundancy package, take legal action against another of the steel unions, Unite, and close down Blast Furnace 5 earlier than planned if industrial action was not ruled out.

GMB national officer Charlotte Brumpton-Childs said: “These threats are Tata showing their true colours. Taking money away from workers losing their livelihoods is cruel.  

“Whilst Tata seems determined to douse the heat of our blast furnaces, the fire burns within our members’ hearts.

"The historic situation, where all steel unions have strike mandates, has happened because Tata and this Conservative government are intent on industrial sabotage.”

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

“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.”

Unite said it believed that the threat to bring forward the closure of the blast furnaces was the latest part of Tata’s plans to turn Port Talbot into a satellite site as the company imports steel from India and its other overseas operations and badges it as produced in Britain.

Members of the union at the Port Talbot and Llanwern steelworks begin an overtime ban on June 18.