8 December, 2011Trade union leaders from Australia, India, Great Britain, New Zealand and North America continue to develop their strategy to organize and promote workers rights through a Tata Steel Network. The unions, meeting in Jakarta on December 7, agreed to an action plan that will see increasing cooperation before a Network meeting in 2012.
INDONESIA: Tata Steel, one of the world's largest steel producers, has continued to extend its global reach by acquiring and building production facilities throughout Europe, Asia and South East Asia. The company more commonly identified as an Indian producer is now a truly trans-national company. It has production facilities in many countries such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, the Netherlands and Great Britain. Distribution centers in Australia and New Zealand add to its coverage. Tata has also announced plans to develop a mining operation in Canada.
Although Tata promotes social values and its operations in India have enjoyed good industrial relations for nearly 100 years, the story has been different elsewhere. For example, the trade unions in Great Britain had to seek intervention from Indian trade unions and the highest level of management to restore good relations following a planned closure and idling of production facilities in 2009.
In addition unions in Europe have concerns over changes in the way information is now shared since Tata purchased Corus. These concerns will be addressed by the network's future action plan and it is hoped that management will be open to proposals to improve the current information system.
Tata has a code of conduct which establishes how the company should operate in all of its locations. The trade unions can play an important role in insuring that these values are upheld through monitoring and implementation. In Indian locations trade unions have already established mechanisms to achieve this and unions in other countries would like to do the same.
In order to develop the network unions agreed to exchange information and work on an action plan that would be updated following a meeting in 2012. The meeting is scheduled to take place in Thailand, where the unions will take coordinated action aiming for company recognition of the network. Tata Steel has invested heavily in Thailand and has a fairly new production facility on the Eastern Seaboard.
The IMF plans a steel project advisory meeting in India in March 2012 and it's hoped that this forum will provide an additional opportunity to present these ideas to senior management.
Rob Johnston, IMF Executive Director, commented "The Central Committee provided a good opportunity for us to meet and commit to some action points in preparation for the network meeting in 2012. We want to work with Tata in good faith and achieve recognition of the network".