Sacked Ferguson workers 'could get BAE jobs'

Published on Tuesday 6 March 2007 03:05

NEW jobs for workers laid off at Ferguson Shipyard yesterday could be found at BAE systems, according to Ferguson's managing director Richard Deane.

Claiming that it was "unlikely" that the number of sacked workers would be as high as the 99 claimed by the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU), Deane said that shipbuilding would continue at the Scotstoun and Govan yards and attempts would be made to relocate axed workers to BAE Systems.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions has a long relationship with Ferguson's and have worked closely with them on sharing skilled production labour. We have been continuing to restructure the company - this is by no means a closure. The number of redundancies has not been decided yet."

According to the CSEU, the firm has formally opened a 30-day consultation period to minimise the impact of the redundancies.

The CSEU chairman, Jim Moohan, called the news "worse than expected" and blamed the Scottish Executive for failing to confirm an order for a 14 million fisheries protection vessel.

Moohan said he now feared the total shutdown of the historic yard within a year.

Founded in 1903, Ferguson has suffered major setbacks in recent years and was threatened with closure in 2005, when the shipyard lost a vital Executive contract to build a new Scottish fisheries protection vessel to a Polish rival.

A few months later the yard bounced back to beat the competition and land a 5.8 million ferry order from Caledonian MacBrayne.

But it lost out again when a 14m bid to build a second fisheries protection vessel was turned down in early 2006, the order instead going to Devon-based Appledore.

STUC general-secretary Grahame Smith said: "These job losses highlight, once again, the need for the Scottish Executive to adopt a strategic approach to public procurement. 'Warlike' equipment is exempt from EU public procurement rules and other member states routinely use this flexibility in support of their own shipbuilding industries."

• The Scottish Executive yesterday announced a 3.7m investment package to revitalise Inverclyde.

The funding will enable Riverside Inverclyde, the new Urban Regeneration Company, to support three projects in Port Glasgow and Greenock - the removal of the James Watt Dock Wall, a landscaping project and the redevelopment of the upper floor of the landmark Port Glasgow Town Buildings.