GMB Congress backs industrial strategy to let Scotland make again

The urgent overhaul of industrial strategy to create and protect jobs and apprenticeships was a priority for GMB Scotland delegates as Congress continues in Blackpool.

On Day Two of the policy-making conference, in the resort’s Winter Gardens, the need to rebuild and underpin UK engineering and manufacturing capability was raised repeatedly.

GMB Scotland delegate, John Dolan, won the backing of Congress for a motion urging ministers to halt the needless offshoring of jobs and contracts.

He said a recent Ministry of Defence contract to replace the Royal Navy’s support vessels exposed the systemic failures undermining the UK’s industrial base while sabotaging national security.

He said: “We recently discovered a contract worth £200 million to build 24 Royal Navy support vessels had been quietly awarded to Damen, a Dutch defence company.

“They will now build these tugs, barges and pilot boats for Devonport, Portsmouth and Faslane at their yards on the other side of the world.

“Faslane is, of course, home to the UK’s nuclear submarines and just a few miles from Port Glasgow where Ferguson Marine, the last commercial shipyard on the Clyde, is crying out for work.

“A publicly owned shipyard. A shipyard owned by British taxpayers. A shipyard with workers, apprentices, skills and a proud history of building small, specialist vessels.

“And it was not even asked to tender. Congress, that beggars belief.

“What kind of procurement system allows public money to leave the country without asking whether that work could support jobs, skills and industrial capacity here at home?”

He said the UK Government’s long-delayed but imminent Defence Investment Plan must detail how contracts  can create and protect UK jobs and apprenticeships.

Programme Euston, the £2billion to deliver new floating harbours the Faslane submarine fleet, must be directly awarded to Navantia shipyards in Fife and Belfast, according to GMB.

Dolan said: “In a more dangerous world, Britain cannot outsource its industrial strength.

“Public contracts should deliver public value. They should support jobs, apprenticeships, supply chains and communities in this country.

“Congress, Scotland should make again. Britain should build again.”

Earlier, GMB Scotland delegates led other important debates on industrial policy including Margaret Boyd making the case for more Scottish representation on the union’s national industry commitees.

Meanwhile, Michael Charlton urged Congress to support calls for better pay and conditions in the security industry while another delegate, Michael Davidson, warned ministers must urgently understand the potential of hydrogen to heat homes or needlessly risk skilled, well-paid jobs in gas distribution.

He said: “Across the gas industry, GMB members have the skills this country needs.

“They maintain the network. They keep homes warm. They respond when things go wrong.

"They do safety-critical work in every part of the country, often in difficult conditions, often when households are already under pressure, and often when failure would have serious consequences.

“Those workers should not be treated as yesterday’s workforce but a central part of the energy transition.

“The skills in the gas industry are not obsolete. They are essential.

"The workers who understand networks, safety, installation, maintenance, emergency response and domestic heating are exactly the workers we will need if the transition is to be delivered safely, affordably and at scale.

"That means investing in hydrogen. It means preparing the gas network for hydrogen and blended fuels.

“It means supporting hydrogen-ready boilers where they can help keep options open for households.

“It means proper trials, proper funding, and a serious skills plan for the workers who will deliver the transition in practice.”

Later, GMB Scotland delegate Lynsay MacKay won support for a motion calling for better transport infrastructure in the Highlands and Islands to underpin business, including the crucial whisky industry.

She said: Almost unbelievably, it has taken more than a decade to dual just 11 miles of the A9, the busiest and most important road to the Highlands, with optimistic estimates now suggesting the work will not be completed for another ten years.

“That is an epic act of economic self-harm.

"Communities, businesses and workers across the Highlands and Islands, including our members working in the whisky industry, deserve more than empty promises and platitudes.

“The upgrading of strategic transport infrastructure is an economic necessity and must become a political priority.”