It is an exciting day for Cinta Groos, the chairman of the central works council of Tata Steel IJmuiden. Today’s provincial elections are crucial to the future of the steel company. Groos hopes for a result that will make her dream a reality: a group that remains rooted in the IJmond and that, with the support of the province, can grow into a sustainable factory within a few years.
Cinta Groos has been working for the IJmuiden steel company for over thirty years. She has been chairman of the central works council for the past two years and has to deal with ‘increasingly fierce’ discussions and the growing opposition to the steel factory on a daily basis. “It is very hard sometimes that people say: ‘Do you still work for that criminal company?'” She says how firmly that sometimes hits Groos and her colleagues.
Text continues below the video
Groos: ‘The discussion is getting fiercer’ – NH Nieuws
Tata Steel’s future plans have been keeping IJmond busy for a few years now, even more than usual during election time. In the coming decades, the dirty and harmful emissions of the steel company must be drastically reduced, to no CO2 emissions in 2050, but preferably even sooner.
According to one, the cleaning of the steel company cannot go fast enough and the company is actually already too late. According to the other, it is logical that the company is given a few years to switch to a new way of making steel.
The works council continues to urge the company to accelerate, says Groos: “It is our job to continue to question the company critically, and it is now or never, in fact we are already quite late. With every delay, the chance that things will go well decreases. comes together.”
The factory has extensive plans: between the end of this decade and 2050, two new hydrogen-powered factories must be built. Groos knows that this will also ensure that the characteristic face of the Hoogovens will change. And she also has a bit of ‘a nostalgic feeling about it’. She explains how the province plays a ‘crucial’ role in greening.
Text continues below the video
‘A bit nostalgic, but the future is different’ – NH Nieuws
And what about the inhabitants of the IJmond? They must be well informed of what is happening, says Groos. “Because I understand that health is a very sensitive issue. We can make a major contribution to that. A company like Tata Steel is never ready to do better.”
She thinks that there is still room for improvement, to include local residents in all plans and to ‘show what is happening’. Not least because Groos likes to be found in Wijk aan Zee himself:
Text continues below the video
‘Wijk aan Zee is a great village’ – NH News
About today’s election day, Groos says: “It’s a very exciting day today. I don’t know what to expect in advance, I think it could go either way. It could also cause a lot of commotion in the political landscape. a lot from us: the cooperation of the province is crucial.”
As for Groos herself: who she will vote for today, she will decide at the last minute, she says. But not without first informing yourself, of course. She admits: Tata Steel plays a role in the decision, but: “The world is bigger than Tata Steel alone, also for the province.”
‘The world is bigger than Tata Steel’ – NH News