Dutch Tata Steel employees hold further strike actions

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch Tata Steel employees held further strike actions on Monday to protest against job cuts planned as part of a broader restructuring, the FNV union said.

A strike by workers on the nightshift, which started on Sunday at 2000 GMT, caused the entire production of packaging steel at Tata’s IJmuiden plant to come to a standstill, FNV spokesman Roel Berghuis said.

It was the third day of strike actions at IJmuiden since they began on June 10, as employees demand a guarantee that a planned transformation of Tata’s European steel activities will not lead to redundancies at Dutch operations.

FNV and other labour unions together represent more than 50% of Tata’s 9,000 employees in IJmuiden.

The Dutch unions say Tata is planning to cut 1,000 of 9,000 jobs in the Netherlands as part of a wider restructuring of its British-based European operations. Tata Europe says it does not plan forced redundancies.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)