Earlier this month, after Babcock (
www.babcockinternational.com) announced around 150 redundancies at its Rosyth shipyard, Britain’s largest manufacturing union — Unite — said that the Government’s “obsession” with putting the construction of Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships out to international tender and delays to the Type 31e frigate risk thousands of skilled jobs and irreplaceable knowledge being lost for a generation.
Describing the news as a “kick in the teeth” for the Scottish economy and for a world-class workforce that had worked tirelessly to build the UK’s two new aircraft carriers, Unite called for the Government to guarantee that the Royal Navy’s new auxiliary ships would be built in UK shipyards, using British steel.
It said a failure to do so would be viewed as a betrayal of UK shipbuilding, the country’s wider manufacturing sector and the communities that have supported naval shipbuilding for generations.
Steve Turner, Unite assistant general secretary, said: “The men and women whose skills built the UK’s two new aircraft carriers at Rosyth are at risk of being lost for a generation, in a blow to the Scottish economy and UK shipbuilding.
"The announcement of job losses at Rosyth will send shudders down the spine of shipyard workers across the UK, who have endured the threat of redundancy on the Mersey and the closure of Devon’s Appledore shipyard in recent months.
“The fear is that these job losses at Rosyth could turn into a flood and the industry could be left with a yawning skills gap unless the Government starts supporting UK plc via a shipbuilding strategy that guarantees the Royal Navy’s new auxiliary ships are block-built in UK shipyards using British steel, in addition to bringing forward work on the Type 31e frigate for export around the globe.
"It would be a gross betrayal of a skilled workforce and British manufacturing, if the Government continued with its obsession to award such work to overseas shipyards and deny manufacturing plants and communities in the UK the economic benefits that building the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships would bring.”