WORKERS yesterday condemned the shutting down of shipbuilding after the slashing of 2,000 jobs in Portsmouth and Glasgow.
BAE Systems, the defence privateer, said 940 staff posts and 170 agency workers are to be sacked at the Portsmouth site, and 835 at yards in Govan and Scotstoun on the River Clyde in Glasgow.
As well, jobs are to go in Rosyth in Fife and Filton, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol.
In its statement, BAE Systems said: ‘Subject to consultation with trade union representatives, the company proposes to consolidate its shipbuilding operations in Glasgow.’
At Prime Minister’s Question Time in the House of Commons, Cameron said the job cuts were ‘in the national interest’ and went on to warn that shipbuilding would also be removed from the Clyde if Scotland voted for independence in its referendum next year.
‘If there was an independent Scotland, it wouldn’t have any more ships to build,’ Cameron claimed.
Defence Secretary Hammond added that the sackings were ‘regrettable’ but ‘inevitable’.
David Hulse, GMB national officer and chair of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Union’s Shipbuilding National Committee, responded with the claim: ‘Following today’s announcement from BAE Systems we are able to confirm that no shipyard will be closing even though there are substantial job losses in the pipeline.
‘There is no doubt that this is a devastating day for the UK shipbuilding industry and the company will have to justify to us the job losses planned.’
He added: ‘GMB is genuinely concerned about the future of the UK shipbuilding industry as the skills, if lost, will never be replaced. We have already seen a lost generation where no apprentices have been trained.’
He did not announce any action to oppose the jobs massacre.
Unite national officer for shipbuilding Ian Waddell said: ‘This is a very worrying time for the workforces and their families as the work on the two carriers comes to a conclusion.
‘Unite will be working very hard to retain the maximum number of jobs at both Portsmouth and in Scotland.
‘It is a huge blow to Britain’s manufacturing and industrial base, with many highly skilled workers faced with losing their jobs.’
Unite also did not call any action.
All Trade Unions Alliance National Secretary Dave Wiltshire said: ‘Unite and the GMB have both said that massive job losses are inevitable and there’s nothing the unions can do about it except have “constructive” talks with BAE.
‘The job of the unions is to fight for the jobs of every single member, not to collaborate with the employer.
‘The only way to save jobs in any industry today is to throw out all collaboration with the bosses, to occupy every factory or shipyard threatened with closure, and demand that these industries be taken out of private hands and placed under the control of the working class.
‘This means getting rid of the government and replacing it with a workers government which will nationalise the industries as part of a socialist planned economy.’
