{"id":17884,"date":"2019-04-24T17:40:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T16:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=17884"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:50","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:50","slug":"17884-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=17884","title":{"rendered":"‘UK ship workers betrayed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Inviting foreign firms to bid on a \u00c2\u01411bn government contract to build Royal Navy support ships abroad has turned Britain into a \u00e2\u20ac\u015blaughing stock\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and is a betrayal of UK ship workers, Unite warned MPs yesterday (April 23).<\/p>\n

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The comments were made by Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner, who was giving evidence to the Defence Select Committee on military procurement policy.<\/p>\n

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Unite is campaigning<\/a> for the contract to build two or possibly three 40,000 ton Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels to be given to a British shipyard.<\/p>\n

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UK firms Babcock, Rolls-Royce, Cammell Laird and BAE Systems have formed a consortium to bid for the contract and are facing rival bids from Japanese, South Korean, Italian and Spanish companies.<\/p>\n

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Turner told MPs, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe really are the laughing stock of Europe, let alone anywhere else. The French don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it, they will not build outside France, just like the US.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Although Royal Navy warships must be built in the UK, the government says support ships are not combat vessels \u00e2\u20ac\u201c despite the fact they transport weapons and sail with the Royal Naval fleet \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and have insisted on allowing shipyards outside of Britain to bid for the contract.<\/p>\n

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Turner told the defence<\/a> committee that the only reason the contract has been tendered worldwide is that the government has \u00e2\u20ac\u015ban ideological obsession\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 with free markets.<\/p>\n

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He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a political choice, rather than about economics.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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MPs were warned that choosing not to build the ships in the UK would be a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbetrayal\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shipbuilding<\/a> sector and directly contravene 2016\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s National Shipbuilding Strategy, which emphasised the necessity of a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bsteady drumbeat of work\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 to keep the industry afloat.<\/p>\n

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Without a continuous flow of work, shipyards are likely to make redundancies as large projects like the construction of the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers come to completion.<\/p>\n

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MPs were told that not only would such a scenario risk jobs and livelihoods but skills that are crucial for the industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future.<\/p>\n

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Turner also criticised a lack of joined up thinking among government departments regarding the procurement of steel for Royal Navy ships.<\/p>\n

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He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got Type 26 frigates being built on the Clyde and all of that steel is coming in from Sweden, while we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re desperate for work on our UK steelyards.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015b(On the support ship contract) there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 80,000 tons on a two-ship build, with a third option for another 40,000, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no recognition across departments in government that the work should be integrated. That steel should be produced in UK steel plants.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Plans by General Electric to move work on Royal Navy ship engines from its Rugby plant to Nancy in France<\/a> were also mentioned at the hearing.<\/p>\n

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Turner told MPs, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is a gross betrayal of our national security interests to allow the Rugby site to close and for that work to transfer to France. It is incredibly sensitive and highly secure work and a lot of that work can only be done in the UK.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo lose that facility would be a real detrimental measure taken against the interests of our Royal Naval fleet. There isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a serving vessel that hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had its power conversion and engine capabilities produced at the Rugby site.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Inviting foreign firms to bid on a \u00c2\u01411bn government contract to build Royal Navy support ships abroad has turned Britain into a \u00e2\u20ac\u015blaughing stock\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and is a betrayal of UK ship workers, Unite warned MPs yesterday (April 23).   The comments were made by Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner, who was giving evidence to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[484,1161,514,603],"wps_subtitle":"Unite AGS Steve Turner slams military procurement policy at defence committee hearing","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17884"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17884"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25332,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17884\/revisions\/25332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}