Rajesh Nair, UK boss of Tata Steel, offers new round of discussions about future investment at site

A strike at the Port Talbot steelworks has been called off after its owner, Tata Steel, offered to engage in fresh talks with trade unions over future investment in a plant destined to lose 2,800 jobs and close its last remaining blast furnaces.

Members of the Unite trade union had been due to begin industrial action on 8 July, days after Tata plans to begin a process that will ultimately end more than 70 years of making steel from scratch at the plant.

Sources say Tata offer is predicated on unions at south Wales site agreeing to suspend future industrial action

The owner of the Port Talbot steelworks has written to trade unions offering fresh talks amid a battle to delay plans to cut 2,800 jobs and suspend production at a site that has been in operation since 1951.

The Guardian understands that a letter sent on Sunday afternoon by Rajesh Nair, the UK boss of Tata Steel, has offered a new round of discussions about future investments at the company’s plants in the UK, including Port Talbot.

Owner of plants in south Wales says it could cease operations at blast furnaces in response to strike action

Labour politicians have been urged to step in to help avert a “costly mistake” by Tata Steel, which has told staff it could close operations at its steel plant in Port Talbot just days after the general election.

The Indian owner of the vast south Wales steelworks said on Thursday that it intended to cease operations at two blast furnaces on the site by 7 July – three days after the general election – in response to strike action announced by Unite members from 8 July. The company had planned to shut one furnace by the end of June and a second by September.

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Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

Unite says upcoming walkout at the plant, which was set to close in September, is ‘for the future of the steel industry’

Tata Steel has told workers it could to cease operations at its steel plant in Port Talbot months earlier than planned because of a strike.

The company had been planning to shut down one of the blast furnaces by the end of June and the second one by September. But workers at the south Wales site have been told that Tata plans to cease operations at both furnaces no later than 7 July because of the strike by members of Unite, which starts the following day.

In the run-up to July's election, the Guardian video team is touring the UK looking at issues that matter to communities. In the town of Port Talbot, in the Aberafan Maesteg constituency, many voters are worried about the future of the steelworks where at least 2,800 jobs are on the line. ​We spoke to businesses, food banks and charities and politicians, all worried about the knock-on effect on families who have been steelworkers for generations. We also heard voters' other concerns and asked politicians what people were saying about the steelworks on the doorstep