Tata Workers’ Union is one of the earliest Trade Unions of India. It was formed as Jamshedpur Labour Association on 5th March 1920 as a result of prolonged labour unrest in TISCO. Although the initial years were not peaceful but Management of Tata Steel and TWU have grown and worked together

Workers of early twenties were mostly uneducated, vulnerable to being misguided, and frustrated with the behaviour of the British officers. There was no local leadership either. There were turmoil on national political scene also. Prices of essential commodities in the market have gone up after the first world war. The workers demanded higher wages but there was no consideration. Against this back ground they went on strike on 24th February 1920.

Byomkesh Chakravorti, one of the noted national leaders was approached to guide the strikers. He immediately sent Mr S N Haldhar, a retired Barrister of Calcutta High Court along with two other associates. Negotiations were done but failed, At last they formed Jamshedpur Labour Association on 5th March 1920 and Mr S N Haldhar, became the first President of the Union.

The strike continued and there was a police firing on the workers, who tried to stop a train. 5 were killed with 21 injured. After this incident Dorabjee Tata, arrived Jamshedpur and negotiated with the Union. The Union was recognised and some demands of the workers were fulfilled.

Again there was a second strike in 1922 due to dissatisfaction amongst the workers, which was called off by the intervention of AITUC.

The Union in the initial years of its formation struggled to protect the interest of the employees. It got support of National leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Motilal Nehru. Dr Rajendra Prasad, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru,Chitranjan Das and others. In order to strengthen the Union, Mahatma Gandhi visited in 1925.

Mr C F Andrews, a Christian missionary, educator, social reformer and close friend of Gandhi was elected President of the Union in 1924 and he continued till 1928.

During this period of Mr Haldhar and Mr Andrews, Union could achieve many things like recognition of the Union, higher wages, maternity benefit, fines eliminated, over time payment, accident compensation, housing facility for employees etc.

There was a prolonged strike during 1928 under the influence of some other union. On the advice of National Leaders and request of workers Netaji Subash Chandra Bose came to Jamshedpur on 18th August 1928 and was elected the third President of the Union. He had an agreement with the Management . The strike was called off. That is the last Trade Union strike in Tata Steel after which till today there had been no strike in the company.

Achievement during the tenure of Netaji were departmental bonus, acting allowance, proper designation, safety appliances, Rest Room and Crèche, job security, daily wages, Grievance handling , participation of the Union in safety committee etc. Netaji wrote to the hen Chairman of the Company to advertise the vacancies of senior positions in Indian News papers also because by then Indians were capable enough to hold the Officers positions. Thus He contributed towards the Indianistion of the Company.

Netaji brought Michael John, a brave trade union leader from Tinplate Co and appointed him as the Secretary of the Union. Netaji had to devote his much of time in the national freedom movement , hence, in his absence Michael John looked after the activities of the labour movement.

A crisis struck Tisco in the form of great depression in 1933. The entire world passed through a financial crisis unparalleled in history, but people at Jamshedpur came through this period with courage and fortitude. Workers accepted a wage cut. During a particular difficult time, they even accepted a wage of Rs 1 per day, the barest minimum.

Strengthening the Foundation- Improving the basics

Prof Abdul Bari , a professor turned into a freedom fighter, Dy Speaker of the Bihar Legislative Council, and also a member of the Labour Enquiry Committee used to visit Jamshedpur along with Dr Rajendra Prasad. On the advice of Netaji and other National Leaders Prof Bari was elected as the 4th President of the Union and he changed the name of the Union as Tata Workers Union in 1937.

Prof Bari brought about a strong unity and maturity amongst the workers. Under his leadership the Union launched a peaceful movement for a thorough revision of wage structure and introduction of incentive bonus scheme. Prof Bari died in 1947 in a very tragic circumstances but his struggle brought fruits in 1948 when Union Secured not only higher wages and improved working condition but stipulated the formation of joint committees with equal representation to ensure better understanding and settlement of disputes by negotiations.

After the death of Prof Abdul Bari in 1947, Michael John was elected as the President of the Union and Mr V G Gopal, who had left the job to devote his full time for the Union, became the Gl Secretary.

Tata Workers’ Union members had the spirit of nationalism also. Many of the members including the leadership of the Union took active part in the freedom struggle of the country. In the quit India movement in 1942, many of them were jailed also. One of the Vice Presidents of the Union, Sardar Treta Singh died in the prison while fasting for the freedom fighters.

Stregthening Partnership- setting bench mark practices for participative management

Michael John and V G Gopal, both of them came from the working class, were the architect of the new era. They together provided a harmonious leadership which could gain maximum benefits with minimum suffering.

The agreement of 1956 is very important agreement and a land mark in the history of TWU and Tata Steel. This agreement is hailed as ‘magna carta’. Along with the usual benefits the agreement gave birth to a system of working together, an unique system which helps the organisation to maintain industrial peace and harmony. System of retrenchment was banned and it was agreed that redundant workforce will be provided training and be absorbed in suitable jobs without any monetary loss. A formal grievance handling system was also formed. It was also agreed that TWU will be the sole bargaining agent with the management.

After the death of Michael John in 1977, Mr V G Gopal was elected as the President of the Union.

This system of working together has always helped the organisation during the time of crisis, for example - Attempt to disturb the Works by a political party in 1957-58, 1969 attempt to strike by outsiders, Attempt to nationalise the Company, Contract workers strike in 1980-81 and other incidents.

Joint Ownership – Jointly creating Strategic Alternatives

After the death of Mr V G Gopal in 1993, Mr S K Benjamin became the President of the Union, followed by Mr R B B Singh ( 2002-2005), Mr Raghunath Pandey (2006-2012), Mr P N Singh ( 2012-2015). Mr R Rabi Prasad (2015-2021) and Mr Sanjeev kumar Choudhary “Tunnu” is the present President of the Union since 2021.

In the decade of 90s, Indian economic policy changed and the market was globalised. We had to compete with the steel producing leaders of the world. Our methods of production were outdated with heavy cost of production. and low productivity and quality. It was easy to modernise the plant but was very difficult to converge thousands of minds towards its importance.

It was a challenge before the Management and Union also owned it equally. Along with management, Union touched every employee through JDC and other meetings to make them aware about the future programmes to save the Company. As a result the entire plant was modernised without a single day of production loss.

The large man power was right sized by giving golden hand shake schemes to the interested employees.

Joint Works Quality Committee and sub committees were formed to enhance the quality of our products and services and as a result we bagged various prestigious quality awards like JRD QV Business Excellence Award, several times PM’s Trophy for the Best Steel Plant and the highest quality award Deming Grand Prize.

Various Joint Committees were formed for skill development of the employees, promotion of sports and games and to fulfil social responsibility.

Union also supported various measures of cost control, productivity enhancement, safety measures, amenities, health of employees, environment protection and education of employees as well as children.

We entered into buyer’s market and Union was active partner in customer satisfaction campaigns. All departments and the JDCs were guided to sign memorandum of Understanding with customer departments / JDCs.

Thus Union entered into the ownership phase with an annual production of 2MT and finally reached up to 10 MTs of Crude Steel.

We have holiday homes for the employees at the various locations in the country and club houses for the social functions in the town. A cancer rest house has been provided near the hospital for the cancer patients.

We celebrated 75 years of Industrial Harmony in 2004 in which The then President of India, late A P J Kalam graced the occasion as the Chief Guest.

The Union has a training wing named The Michael John Centre for Human Resources Development. The Centre started off its activities by conducting annual lectures in the memory of Late Michael John, the former President of Tata Workers Union. The event was named as Michael John memorial lecture, and till date we had 24 eminent personalities delivering the lecture on different topics. The Centre conducts training programmes for the development of the employees, new entrants, trainees and its executive members also. It runs a library which has more than 17000 books.

Management and Union worked together to face the challenges, every problem was shouldered and now our plant is one of the Best Steel Plants of the World. Still the journey continues and Tata Workers Union is ready to walk another hundred years for the Employees, Company and the Nation.

The values embedded in the DNA of Tata Workers Union are Faith in Democratic Values, Trust & Cooperation, Honesty & Integrity, Environment of Mutual Respect, Reliability & Accountability and Excellence. Our main objective is Employees care and care for the society. We have 214 Executive Committee members and 11 Office Bearers. We hold the election of Executive Committee members in every three years and 214 executive members elect the 11 office bearers. The entire process of election is done by secret ballot system.

The Tata Workers’ Union has completed 100 years of its inception on 5th March 2020.