 "Trade Unions say meet with Tata Steel CEO 'non-eventful'")
With the intension to further aggrevate its fight against the proposed closure of existing pension scheme at Tata Steel's operations in Britian, trade unions (TUs) are to meet on Friday to decide the course of action post June 22 --- a national day of strike action planned at Tata Steel UK plant.
"The decision to meet tomorrow (Friday) has come after the uneventful meeting we (trade union representatives) had with Karl (Karl Koehler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations) yesterday," Paul Reuter, national officer for steel at Unite, largest TU in Britain, told Business Standard. "The company did not put forth the proposed changes it plans to announce to UK pension arrangements," he added.
Early this week, after the four unions -- Community, UCATT, GMB and Unite rolled out their strike action plan to stop overtime from June 16 and carry out a 24-hour strike on June 22, Tata Steel had said it would soon be announcing new measures to lessen the impact of the proposed pension changes. The company also said that the changes would lower impact "particularly on our longest-serving employees nearing retirement age".
Since the discussions were private and non-discussable, Reuter did not detail the talk points of the meeting and maintained that overall the meeting was not a fruitful one.
"After the meeting with Tata Steel yesterday, we can say that we (trade unions and the company) are still walking through the dispute though unions still remain open for negotiations with the company," said Reuter. "Upon discussions with Karl we felt he is risking the company towards closure of operations," Reuter added.
At the Friday meet, representatives of trade unions are also going to discuss bringing members of other Tata Group companies under the strike purview.
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"We are also planning to active support of members who are part of other Tata Group companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Jaguar Land Rover and even customers of Tata Steel," Reuter added.
With this kind of plan of action in offling, trade unions seems to be sure about tightening their noose around Tata Steel's proposal to close the pension scheme.
Separately, Karl Koehler on Wednesday met Members of Parliament in the All Party Parliamentary Group for Steel following an invitation to discuss the proposed changes to the company's UK pension arrangements.
"During the meeting Koehler explained the context behind the company's continuing efforts to develop a fair and sustainable pension scheme for UK employees. The scheme is faced with a projected shortfall of up to 2 billion pound, which both the company and the unions agree makes change necessary," Tata Steel spokesperson said.
"Koehler also reiterated that the company remains open even at this late stage to unconditional talks with the unions to find resolutions in good faith to the very serious challenges that require the pension scheme to be reformed. But he stressed that decisions on dealing with these challenges must be made imminently," the spokesperson informed.
All-Party Parliamentary Groups are informal cross-party groups that have no official status within Parliament. They are run by and for Members of the Commons and Lords, though many involve individuals and organizations from outside Parliament in their administration and activities.