Government yet to decide on tendering for CalMac ferries

NO FINAL decisions have been made on the tendering of ferry services, the Scottish Government said yesterday as a union claimed its campaign against the proposals is paying off.

The RMT said government plans to consider putting some ferry routes run by state-owned Caledonian MacBrayne out to tender have been pushed back by three years, although the government said there have been no decisions. The routes are Ardrossan to Brodick, Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Oban to Craignure and Largs to Cumbrae.

Ferry workers represented by RMT voted on Wednesday for strike action to defend pensions and workplace rights.

RMT said it had received ­assurances last week that the ferry services will not be privatised and the routes would not be ­unbundled.

The union said that the dispute would remain live until it received written assurances that pensions and workplace rights would be protected.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The three-year delay on the CalMac tendering is a massive victory for the RMT campaign against privatisation and in defence of jobs and working conditions.

“There is no question that our campaign of political and public pressure, alongside a massive mandate for strike action from our members, has helped force the pace on this momentous ­decision.

“We now want the long-term assurances on pensions and rights that we have been seeking and until we have that in writing, our dispute remains live.

“RMT will also continue to campaign for the expensive and disruptive tendering of services to be scrapped for good so that we can all focus on the delivery of these essential lifeline services long into the future.”

First Minister Alex Salmond last week said that the tendering of the Clyde and Hebrides lifeline ferry services is needed to protect them.