Prospects for Tara Mines and its 630-strong workforce remained uncertain last night as the company refused to disclose its intentions for the Navan plant.
The SIPTU branch secretary, Mr Christy McQuillan, appealed for the company to make a statement because uncertainty was making the situation increasingly volatile.
A board meeting of Tara Mines was held in Dublin yesterday morning. Finnish directors of the parent company, Outokompu, attended the meeting and it had been expected that an announcement would follow yesterday afternoon.
However, the managing director, Mr Charlie Brown, said no comment would be made at this stage. He could not say when an announcement would be made and added there were no plans to meet the company's unions. He did confirm that the board discussed the Labour Court recommendation issued on Monday.
The Labour Court had proposed that the company give a three-month trial to union proposals to make the Navan facility viable. Mr Murphy declined to say if the company had accepted it. He did say no clarifications had been sought from the court on the recommendation.
Yesterday evening a meeting of SIPTU shop stewards took place in the union's premises at Navan. Afterwards Mr McQuillan said that the union had decided to defer any initiatives on the Labour Court recommendation "while waiting to hear from the company on the decision taken by its board".
He added that the union "had reason to understand that the company will be making a statement by noon tomorrow." Meanwhile the SIPTU meeting stood adjourned until Monday.
Company sources said later that there was no basis for believing a statement would be issued at noon today. Nor have workers at the plant been given any details of the company plans.
"We have never been in this situation before", a perplexed Mr McQuillan said. The delay in making an announcement had damaged morale at the mine. The uncertainty was leaving people very frustrated. The whole thing was getting more sensitive and tense.
"All of this won't help an eventual resolution and working out of a plan, if a plan is to be implemented", he said. It was most unfair of the company, which had been complaining about the urgency of the situation and was now moving along at a snail's pace.
"The workers will find it very hard to believe the company does not have an ulterior motive for issuing protective notice last week, which put pressure on them and seemed to be an attempt to influence the court.
"We have a court recommendation now that does offer an opportunity to save the mine, but it has to be on the basis of very firm commitments on both sides."
He said the workers believed in their survival plan and "we are coming forward with as much commitment to make it work as we can. We will give it our best shot if the opportunity is there."