Petra Dekker
Petra Dekker tells her story at the kitchen table in her home in Heerhugowaard. Cookies on the table, coffee poured.
She has been working at Tata Steel for fifteen or sixteen years, she says. In electrical engineering. Her husband works there too.
She started as a work planner through a temp agency, back when the company was still called Corus. She moved between different plants — measuring cables, calculating connections, checking installations. She worked in the sinter plant, later in the cold rolling mill and at Tata Steel Packaging.
After a number of years, she left. She wanted to grow, she says, but that wasn’t possible at Tata at the time. For six years she worked elsewhere, taking on a different role each year, at a different company. Then she returned.
For the past eight years she has worked in the hot strip mill. Her work revolves around maintenance: inspections, breakdowns, preparing jobs — making sure the installation keeps running. Once a year the plant shuts down completely for a week, during which maintenance is carried out day and night.
“Those are heavy weeks,” she says.
With the upcoming reorganisation, her current position will disappear. She already knows that. It doesn’t make her anxious. New roles will be created, the work will be redistributed. She wants to stay at Tata. Not necessarily in this role, but in the plant. She enjoys the technical work — especially now that many things are being renewed.
As for her health, she says she is not afraid. She knows where she should and should not be, works with awareness of the risks, and takes her own safety seriously. The factory is not clean — she doesn’t eat there — but for her that comes with the job. She has worked in other factories where it was no different.
As for her health, she says she is not afraid. She knows where she should and should not be, works with awareness of the risks, and takes her own safety seriously. The factory is not clean — she doesn’t eat there — but for her that comes with the job. She has worked in other factories where it was no different.
She calls Tata Steel a good employer. She enjoys working there. She sees that things have changed over the years — that investments are being made, also in health and environment. At the same time, she acknowledges that the plants are old, and that change takes time.
“You don’t fix that in a day,” she says.
When the conversation turns to the surrounding environment, she becomes more cautious. She follows the news, reads what is shared internally, but does not engage in policy discussions.
“That’s not my field.”
She understands the concerns of residents. She also sees that some people outside the company are very well informed. Still, she feels the public image is often one-sided.
“The truth lies somewhere in the middle,” she says. Not everything is good — but not everything is bad either.
Within the company, improvements are being made, she believes, but for a long time they were not visible. She acknowledges that Tata has been too closed off, that there has been too little transparency towards the surrounding area.
“That’s a missed opportunity.”
As a woman in engineering, she has had to prove herself. At school she was the only woman in her class; in the plant, women are still rare. Sometimes her knowledge is questioned. Other times she is helped without being asked. She has learned to navigate that. After so many years, she stands more firmly.
At the end of the conversation, she says she finds it difficult. Not because she has no opinion, but because she does not know everything.
She is in the middle of it — and at home, the company is present as well. She sees the concerns from outside and the efforts from within.
“We are in the middle of it,” she says.
“We live with the situation as it is. And we try to make the best of it — with what we can.”