UK union asks Tata Steel to clarify intention on sale plan

In a strongly-worded letter, a Tata Steel union has asked the company's management to clarify its intention on what it plans to do with its UK business.The union has accused the company of not communicating its intent clearly, three months after it announced it would sell its UK steel business. "Employees, customers and supplies deserve to know Tata's intention. Tatas had made it clear they no longer wanted to keep their UK business. It is now unclear whether Tata intends to sell the business at all," the union wrote in its letter."The issue of pension scheme is yet to be resolved. We call upon Tata to recognise their moral and social responsibility [and communicate their decision with respect to the sale]."CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan spoke to Tata Steel Union Leader Roy Rickhuss on contents of the letter.Q: You are accusing Tata Steel of inordinate delays. Could you explain to us why you have a reason to believe that they are not serious about going through with the sale process and don't you think that perhaps they are also waiting to see what happens with the referendum?A: The referendum is obviously very important to the whole of the manufacturing sector in the UK and I agree with your previous article that the UK should stay and remain within the EU and my union is actually campaigning for that result. However Tata Steel made the decision to exit the UK three months ago which at the time they made no reference to the EU referendum. It did not say that the EU referendum is bringing a bearing on its decision. Their decision was nothing to do with the referendum. That is how they made the decision based on the financial performance of the company at that time.Why we say this being unacceptable delay is because as I said it has been three months and three months they said they would invite bidders and they have had a number of bidders and we have had week after week where they have said we will announce a shortlist and nothing has happened. Then they say we might not sell after all and we might stay. All we are saying is today we had a meeting with all our union representatives in the UK, there must have been about 60 representatives in the meeting and they said they are becoming extremely frustrated and the workforce wants to know what is going on. They have a right to know what is happening to their families.Q: Do you have any further information on whether there is a change of plan and whether Tata Steel is now actually looking to sell the business in part as opposed to the earlier plan of trying to sell it as a whole?A: This is not we have said today, the workforce should not be having to find out what is happening to their jobs via the media and media speculation with the greatest of respect to the media. Tatas should be keeping us updated as to what is happening. There has been media speculation in the UK this morning that they are now looking at bids for parts of the company which is contradicting what they told us right from the start, from March 29 when we were in Mumbai meeting with the Tata Steel representatives that they are looking to sell the company as a whole.They are now halfway through this process, they have changed the bids from share bids to asset bids and there are now speculations that they are looking to bids for different parts of the company.I challenged Tata this morning to confirm whether that is true or not true and they have not confirmed whether that is true. They are saying that is press speculation but it is under consideration.Q: So, you are saying Tata Steel has confirmed to you that sale in part is actually on the table, it is being considered?A: They are saying they are considering all their options, they are considering everything. So, they haven’t confirmed or denied it. They haven’t said they are not considering it. They are saying that they are looking at all their options.So, it is possible that they might look to sell the company in part rather than as a whole which is what they have always said to us previously.