Nicola Sturgeon has called on the prime minister to give his “cast-iron commitment” to delivering promised shipbuilding contracts on the river Clyde, after it emerged that up to 800 redundancies could result from backsliding on David Cameron’s post-referendum pledge to provide a steady stream of orders to safeguard the industry.
Meeting trade union representatives at Govan shipyard on Monday morning, the Scottish first minister said: “The workers on the Clyde have unparalleled skills and experience – and they deserve better than empty promises.”
Representatives of the joint trade unions from the Scotstoun and Govan shipyards were told by BAE Systems at a meeting on Friday that a “worst-case scenario” of 800 redundancies was possible if the UK government pulled back from its commitment to the manufacture of eight type-26 frigates on the Clyde.
The contracts were promised before the Scottish independence referendum, during which the impact of leaving the UK on the future of shipbuilding on the Clyde was a key issue.
GMB Scotland understands that these cuts would result in outsourcing up to 20% of work from the upper Clyde to yards in England over the lifetime of the frigate contract, which has already been delayed until the end of 2017.
As the shadow Scottish secretary, Labour’s Ian Murray, and the SNP’s Westminster defence spokesperson, Brendan O’Hara, prepared to raise urgent questions about the contracts in the Commons on Monday afternoon, Sturgeon said: “A series of claims were made by the Tories and Labour during the referendum about employment at these yards and we will do everything in our power to hold the Tories to their promises.”
Referring to the recent confirmation that the prime minister was too busy to campaign with Scottish Conservatives in the final weeks of the Holyrood election campaign, Sturgeon said: “We already know that David Cameron is trying to avoid Scotland during this election campaign – but he can’t avoid his obligation to the workers on the Clyde.
“He owes it to them to give a cast-iron commitment that this contract will be delivered in full, and on the promised timescale.”
On Friday, the secretary of GMB Scotland, Gary Smith, described the prospect of delayed or relocated contracts as a “total betrayal of the upper Clyde workforce”.
Smith said: “We’ve gone from the upper Clyde workforce being promised the manufacture of 13 type-26 frigates in 2014, only for that to be cut to eight frigates last year. We’ve gone from the promise of a world-class ‘frigate factory’ on the Scotstoun site, only to be told the plans were shelved.”
