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MP to discuss future of steel-making

Redcar MP Vera Baird is to meet with the vice-chairman of Tata Steel Mr B Muthuraman to discuss the future of steel-making on Teesside and potential uses for Corus land.

The meeting comes after Baird wrote a letter to the group in which she criticised its social responsibility agenda.

She said: “It has now been agreed that I should meet with Mr Muthuraman to discuss these pressing issues. I wrote setting out the headlines of the Tata empire’s commitment to corporate social responsibility and its stated ethical position to support and develop its employees.

“I wanted to know whether these standards apply to Tata’s British employees in the same way that their brochure shows they do to its other employees. I also asked whether Mr Kirby Adams shared these values, bearing in mind his refusal to appear before the Committee and the off-hand way he eventually answered their questions in writing.

“I wanted this information because Tata say that the future of Redcar steel is through a sale and Tata is the vehicle for that sale. The workforce and the government cannot directly negotiate, so we need to ensure that those who are doing so have an approach that prioritises the welfare of employees, whilst of course negotiating a deal on a commercial basis too.”

She also said she was pleased that the new jobs created by the Hartlepool Pipework contract would be made available to Corus workers: “I accept that making available the 100 jobs from the Hartlepool Pipework contract to our workers does demonstrate an employees-first approach, however I am still apprehensive about whether Mr Adams, who was profiled in a national newspaper on Sunday, can rise to that challenge because of the somewhat strange comments he made.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .