The news from Ferguson Marine is a damning indictment of the Scottish government’s ferry procurement strategy. The yard need not face an “inevitable gap” and be “forced” to shed 70 skilled posts with proper contract management resulting in its core staff dropping from 247 to just 177 – ministers have yet to even contact the Competition and Markets Authority about the four promised new vessels. Meanwhile, the government continues to farm out vital shipbuilding contracts to foreign yards. Repeatedly, CMAL has turned to overseas shipbuilders in Poland and Turkey to construct ferries, often citing delays at Ferguson. Yet the irony is palpable: sending contracts abroad creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. By starving the Port Glasgow yard of continuity the government guarantees the very capacity constraints they claim necessitate using foreign yards.
The Economic Case for Port Glasgow
Building these four vessels locally is not mere sentiment; it is sound economics. Ferguson Marine supports a vast supply chain across the West of Scotland – from Glasgow’s steel fabricators and marine engineers to local electricians and logistics firms. Every £1 spent on local shipbuilding generates a significant multiplier effect that evaporates when taxpayers’ money flows to Gdansk or Istanbul. Moreover, the yard currently holds 32 apprentices. Without new orders, these apprentices face a bleak future, extinguishing a generation of Clyde-based skills that have been painstakingly nurtured. Localising the contracts ensures these high-value technical jobs remain in Scotland, bolstering the regional economy rather than subsidising competitor nations.
The Social Imperative
Socially, the stakes could not be higher. Inverclyde has already lost 1,500 jobs in recent years. Ferguson Marine is the last commercial yard on the Clyde, and its potential demise would strike a devastating blow to community morale and identity. Shipbuilding is woven into the fabric of Port Glasgow; losing it forcing highly skilled workers to seek employment elsewhere in the UK or abroad, further hollowing out the local population.The government must halt its “due diligence” procrastination. It needs to directly award the promised contracts, bypassing the failed competitive procurement models that have sent money overseas, and instead invest in the country’s own industrial resilience. To do otherwise is not just a betrayal of a “blameless workforce,” as the GMB union aptly put it, but a systemic failure to protect the economic and social future of the West of Scotland.
Jim McDaid, Leader of The Socialist Labour Party