Global union network at Tata Steel established

GLOBAL: Trade unions from Australia, Europe, India met on August 24 to 26 in Singapore to develop a strategy to build a global union network for the world’s fifth largest steel company, Tata Steel Group. Senior management from the group, which has operations throughout Asia under its NatSteel banner, operations in Europe under the Tata-Corus Group and its biggest operations in India under the Tata Steel Group, also contributed to the discussions through Mr T.V.Narendran, President and CEO of NatSteel Holdings Pte Ltd.

During the meeting participants discussed the situation throughout the company, from the recently announced 2,500 job losses in the United Kingdom, to the planned expansion of operations in India. The outcome from these discussions was to recommend a set of principles that each of the unions present would use to develop international solidarity under the umbrella of the IMF. The principles include a commitment to establish an active global union network that will:

• Develop joint strategies,
• Facilitate regular and timely exchanges of information about union goals, challenges, strategies and victories,
• Facilitate regular and timely exchanges of information about what the Tata Steel Group does in its global operations and how it affects workers,
• Strengthen the local national union networks that already exist and create new networks, and
• Support each other in collective bargaining processes, particularly in confrontations with the company.

It was also agreed that although Tata Steel Group was an important sector of the company it only represented a small part of the overall Tata Group which covers many different industries. Consequently, it was agreed that a much broader strategy will need to be developed within the overall group involving other relevant Global Union Federations from the outset.