On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, De Unie and her fellow unions with a delegation from the Board of Directors about the letter of demands that we presented to Hans van den Berg on 14 April and about the disappointing response to it from the Board of Directors.
Join now, starting from €0
The reorganization: where are we now?
We had a good conversation on April 23. The unions made a number of process proposals regarding the impasse that had arisen. For example, the unions want Tata Steel to take a different approach with regard to the announced reorganization and Tata Steel does not want to deviate significantly from its approach.
The Board of Directors found some of our process proposals interesting. It would come back to our proposals by Friday 25 April 2025. It did so.
The response of 25 April 2025 was downright disappointing. The employer reiterated its approach and positions. In that response, the Board of Directors did not address the suggestions we made on 23 April.
What is the core of our message to your employer? We want the 1.600 FTE to be taken off the table. Tata Steel's objective is a reduction in personnel costs, which should be central. How many FTE that will ultimately cost, must be substantiated from detailed plans. Those detailed plans are not yet available.
What now?
On April 25, the four unions consulted with each other on how to proceed. The idea is that we organize a members meeting in the week of May 12, 2025. Until then, we will work towards an ultimatum that we will set for the employer. We will work out what the demands that we set in that ultimatum will look like in the coming period, but the content will be very similar to the demands that we presented to Hans van den Berg on April 14, 2025.
The members meeting that we are planning will be a so-called three-quarter meeting. In a three-quarter meeting, a union agrees an ultimatum with its members and we vote on whether our members are prepared to take a course of action, in the event that Tata Steel does not want to meet the ultimatum.
Whether it will come to that, I do not know yet. But now that Tata Steel is sticking to its approach, we are making preparations for a three-quarter meeting.
If we do indeed hold a three-quarter meeting, I will inform you of the time. In the meantime, we hope of course that the employer will come to his senses and take our ideas seriously.
Continuing with the collective labor agreement
On Wednesday, April 30, 2025, De Unie and her fellow unions will still sit down with the employer. That is about the collective labor agreement. After all, our members have agreed to the negotiation result. We now have to adjust the collective labor agreement text on that basis.
Since the collective labor agreement remains virtually unchanged – we have only made new agreements about the wage paragraph – we expect that the elaboration of the collective labor agreement text will not take much time.
When the new collective labor agreement text is available, we will inform the members.
Special offer to become a member
In these turbulent times for Tata Steel, it helps if the unions are as strong as possible. Do you know a colleague who is not yet a member of De Unie? Or are you a light member now? You can now take out a Complete or Extra membership without waiting time for individual services!
When you become a member, you normally have a waiting period of 3 months for individual services and 6 months for legal procedures. Especially for new Tata Steel members, the 3-month waiting period is now waived. Furthermore, our usual discount applies in the first year. You pay €8,95 per month for the first year of your membership for a Complete membership and €20,30 for an Extra membership.
You can easily register by here to click.
Want to know more about our membership options? Call our Service Center at 0345-851 963.
Questions or remarks?
Do you have any questions or comments about this message? Please contact the advocate Hans Korver. He can be reached at hans.korver@unie.nl and on 06-5252 2073.
