GMB slates failure to back Scotland's shipyard after redundancies announced

Job losses at Ferguson Marine are a betrayal of a blameless workforce and will drain skills and experience from the last commercial shipyard on the Clyde, according to GMB Scotland.

The biggest union at the publicly-owned shipyard blamed a voluntary redundancy programme announced today on ministers’ failure to deliver new contracts while sending work around the world.

Louise Gilmour, GMB Scotland secretary, said up to 70 jobs are at risk at the Port Glasgow yard while the Scottish Government refuses to sign-off four contracts promised before the Holyrood election in May.

She said: “Shipbuilders needs ships to build so where are those promised to Ferguson Marine? If they ever come, who will build them?

“Fergusons was once Scotland’s ferry factory with a worldwide reputation for excellence and should be again.

“Instead, skilled and experienced shipbuilders are being encouraged to leave as those in charge send contracts everywhere but here.”

“The lack of support, ambition and industrial strategy is abject.”

Gilmour blamed the loss of jobs and skills at Fergusons, where a third of CalMac’s current fleet was built, on a long-standing failure to open a pipeline of work for the yard after completion of the Glen Rosa and Glen Sannox ferries.

She said: “Its reputation has been battered for ten years because of two calamitous contracts decided and driven by those in charge of our ferry network.

“Their hubris and incompetence have failed a blameless workforce that deserves the chance to turn the page.”