Ferguson Marine: Award contract for seven new CalMac ferries to shipyard – GMB union

Urgent demand ahead of statement on yard by Wellbeing Economy Secretary Mairi McAllan

Ministers must award the next CalMac ferry contract to Scottish Government-owned Ferguson Marine and fund improvements to the shipyard to help win other work, its main union has demanded.

The call from GMB Scotland comes ahead of a Parliamentary statement on Tuesday by Wellbeing Economy Secretary Mairi McAllan on the Port Glasgow yard, which has still to complete two large CalMac ferries which are six years late.

The union also said workers were “desperate to clear their name” and were blameless for the vessels being delayed and four times over budget. This has been attributed by others to the way the ferries were ordered and significant construction errors made by previous yard managements.

Hallaig was the first of CalMac's hybrid diesel-electric ferries built by Ferguson Marine in 2012. (Photo by CalMac)

The GMB’s call for an urgent decision over the next seven smaller ferries echoed the Scottish Government’s ferry-buying firm, which warned last year that delaying the order threatened to increase the unreliability of CalMac’s ageing fleet.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (Cmal) also said it would “absolutely” trust Ferguson Marine with the contract because it had successfully built similar CalMac ferries in the past.

Gary Cook, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser in manufacturing, in a letter to Ms McAllan, said: “Despite the repeated delays and fraught history of Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, cross-party consensus has been reached on a plan to save the yard. The power now lies with you to make it happen.”

Mr Cook called for investment to modernise the yard and directly award it the small ferries contract rather than put the order out for competitive bids.

Ferguson Marine does not expect to complete Glen Sannox until May or June, and sister ferry Glen Rosa until September next year at the latest. (Photo by John Devlin/The Scotsman)

He said computer technology would help the yard to win other work, such as further orders with Royal Navy warship builder BAE Systems.

Mr Cook said: “Investment is vital to make the yard competitive and efficient.

“The workers themselves will be making many of the required upgrades to the yard themselves to reduce costs. This is a workforce determined to clear their name and save their yard for generations to come.”

Cmal chief executive Kevin Hobbs told The Scotsman last July: “We have made it very clear we cannot delay building the small vessels replacement programme (SVRP) on the basis that somebody cannot decide.

“The small vessels are more reliable generally than the bigger vessels have been, but it doesn’t take a genius to work out that you will end up very much in the same position with the small vessels if you don’t replace them."

Cmal added this week: “We have done everything we can to ensure the project is ready to progress to procurement stage. We continue to wait for a final funding decision, and are hopeful this will be made in the coming weeks. "

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However, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Direct award is legal only in strictly limited circumstances under public procurement rules.

"We are considering future vessel contracts from public agencies on a case-by-case basis, including whether any might be legally open to direct award.

“Ministers are considering the outline business case for the SVRP. An update will be provided in due course, once a decision on investment has been taken.

“The Scottish Government is committed to doing all it can to secure a sustainable future for the yard and its skilled workforce.”