[BITList] Glasgow's last shipyard Ferguson Shipbuilders settoclose | UK news | The Guardian

[HUGH]

Mike,

I had a talk with a friend last night - he was with Fergusons right to the end. What closed wasn't a shipyard, but the rump of a shipyard. The remaining DO staff totalled 3 engineers, led  by a loftsman (!).  When I last worked there (I was with them 3 times) the DO staff totalled over 12. And the administrators have started removing stuff from the yard - the engine from a yard transport vehicle was taken out and not seen again.  They were stopped by the sleleton staff from dismantling jigs made for the last newbuilding - burning them for easier removal. The ship models, none of them for ships built by the recent owners, were taken away by these owners.  The owners weren't shipbuilders - they bought the yard as an investment.

Already the whole affair is being viewed through independence referendum spectacles. We read strident Union demands for action by the (Scottish) Government (or else) from people who couldn't pump up a tyre without a handbook. That the closure was imminent must have been obvious to the goverment, they shout. What they mean by action, these people are unable to say - slogans say nothing helpful. The staff in Fergusons may have had suspicions, but not a clue about any proposed closure until the day the yard closed.

Sad.

Hugh.
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