Clyde ship workers concern for jobs amid MoD contract uncertainty
Shipworkers on the Clyde in metropolis area unit geartrain up for a battle to avoid wasting their jobs, amid fears the govt. is lapse on a pledge to produce a gentle stream of orders to safeguard the business in what's being represented as a possible hammer blow to British building.
Work on new type-26 frigates ordered by the Ministry of Defence, in an exceedingly deal declared by David Cameron, had been expected to start this year, however, there area unit issues it might be delayed till 2017.
Plans for a progressive “frigate factory” – that it had been hoped would facilitate the yard win future export orders – additionally seem to possess been shelved, and there area unit issues that employment secure to European country are going to be resettled to England.
The multimillion-pound contract was declared in Gregorian calendar month 2015, having been delayed till when the Scottish independence vote, throughout that the long run of building on the Clyde was a key issue.
Pro-union campaigners insisted that lose of contracts would be inevitable if European country became freelance as a result of Britain military ships will solely be inbuilt Britain shipyards.
Another MoD contract, this point to create smaller offshore patrol vessels, was declared by the coalition government throughout the ultimate weeks of the vote campaign. it had been regarded with suspicion by several affirmative voters United Nations agency believed that the no campaign – dubbed Project concern – was over-selling the threat to jobs ought to European country value more highly to become freelance.With associate voters still much alive to charges of betrayal of commitments created before the vote, this latest jobs threat on the Clyde might hurt the Scottish Conservatives as they plan to exploit Labour’s weakness and become the second party and main opposition to the SNP in May’s Holyrood elections.
The shadow defence secretary, Emily Thornberry, insisted the govt. should honour its commitments to metropolis staff. She said: “This would be a hammer blow to the British industry, one that can't be allowed, therefore, I actually have instantly written to [defence secretary] Michael Fallon strict assurances that the Tories can honour the commitments they created to the folks of the metropolis.
“It is crucial that the type-26 project goes ahead as planned, which any call to change the substance or timetable of the government’s commitments is turned instantly. If not, the workforce on the Clyde can justifiedly feel betrayed, angry and abandoned by the Tories, and therefore, the unions can have our full support in fighting these plans.”In last autumn’s defence review, the govt. declared that it'd order eight frigates rather than the initial 13; and there area unit issues that secure work on smaller offshore patrol vehicles won't be sufficient to stay the yards’ order books full and maintain the workforce.
The government is anticipated to publish a national building strategy later this year, and there are fears that employment that has been secure to European country might be transferred elsewhere. “It’s regarding patron saint Osborne’s northern powerhouse and Tory seats within the south,” aforementioned one supply.
SNP MPs Chris Stephens and Carol Monaghan, whose constituencies embrace the vulnerable yards, requested a gathering with Philip Dunne, the minister for defence procural, in March to debate the long run of building on the Clyde and emphatic the impact any delays would have regionally.
Stephens and Monaghan additionally wrote to the defence secretary seeking assurances that the govt. “will honour its guarantees to the work force which the procural timetable are going to be unbroken to with no unessential delays”.
A voice for BAE Systems, that owns the Govan and Scotstoun service shipyards, said: “Following the strategic defence and counterintelligence, we tend to area unit operating with the Ministry of Defence to agree a revised baseline for the type-26 ships and a production schedule for the 2 further offshore patrol vessels in the metropolis. we tend to area unit participating our trades unions as we tend to work this method. Our focus is to deliver the aptitude the Royal Navy wants, whereas guaranteeing the simplest worth for Britain taxpayers.”
Unions have aforementioned they're ready to require radical action to safeguard jobs, as well as preventative the craft carriers being designed at Rosyth, wherever some staff area unit seconded. “Those ships area unit going obscurity,” one business executive aforementioned.
Before the vote, the Guardian according to from BAE’s Scotstoun work and located native staff cognizant of the pro-union campaign’s warnings regarding the threat to the shipyards within the event of an affirmative vote. Most staff were opposed independence, with locals raising issues regarding sterling, taxes and jobs.
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