Business Secretary Sajid Javid said that he did not think nationalisation was the solution but did not rule it out.
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He will urge the Indian conglomerate to begin negotiations with interested companies, including Mr Gupta’s Liberty House, as soon as possible.
“Having given all the proposals and the context full consideration, myself and the national officers from the other unions are recommending that our members vote for the temporary changes to terms and conditions on the basis that this will give the transformation plan with Greybull a greater chance of success”, he said.
Meanwhile First Minister Carwyn Jones travelled to Downing Street yesterday morning to meet with the Prime Minister and Chancellor George Osborne over the crisis. Javid is holding meetings with the Welsh government, trade unions, and Liberty House before flying to Mumbai to meet Tata.
“I’ve met Liberty before and I’m very happy to meet them again today. I now look forward to seeing what the UK Government is going to put on the table”. But it’s right that there is a role here for the United Kingdom government and I’ve set out how we can help. We know there are potential buyers out there – but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“But the important thing is where the buyers are coming forward we’re ready to work with them”.
Unions will issue under-fire Business Secretary Sajid Javid with three key demands to rescue Britain’s battered steel industry.
Community said negotiations with managers at Tata’s Long Products division over the transformation plan had been hard.
He said: “The Government’s ideological allergy to public ownership must not be allowed to prevent it taking the steps necessary to save United Kingdom steel”.
His colleague Gary Keogh added: “We are open to anything for the survival of our industry”. “Tata have confirmed that all their assets will be in a saleable position”.
They want ministers to stop buyers “cherry picking” Tata’s profitable divisions while letting other arms go to the wall. “If there were any barriers to that market [it would] undermine the steel industry further”.
About half of Port Talbot’s 4,000 employees are working in the blast furnaces and on the coke side, but Mr Gupta said his intention would be to redeploy all of them. The model that Liberty is building at Newport and elsewhere is built around melting down scrap metal – two million tonnes a year at Newport – using modern electric arc furnaces.
Mr Gupta said he was looking at the broad concept of the business and believed the majority of it could be saved.
However, there is doubt it will want to buy the entire business, including the giant plant at Port Talbot in South Wales, which is crucial to the local economy.
India’s Tata Group bought the former Corus Steel, an Anglo-Dutch group, in 2007, but the business is lossmaking.
“He needs to look workers in the eye, not just at Port Talbot, but at sites across Tata Steel from Shotton and Llanwern, to Rotherham and Corby and say your Government backs you”.
“The clue’s in the name – specialist steels, it has a future”.
Mr Jones also said Mr Cameron “recognised the need” for tariffs against cheap Chinese steel imports to be increased – after the United Kingdom was accused of blocking such a move in Europe.
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He said production could be expanded but with different methods – a transition that would take years.
