Unite Criticises Lib Dem MP over Aircraft Carrier Contract

Quite astonishing! I simply cannot understand how UNITE has the nerve to defend Labour's staggering mismanagement of the public finances. Delaying the carriers by up to two years has cost the nation an additional £1billion but has not created one single extra job or any improvements to the carrier.

I want Rosyth to have a long and strong future but that future will be threatened by reckless decisions like this.

Instead of attacking me for standing up for the dockyard and the workforce, UNITE should be telling their friends in the Labour Party to stop frittering away taxpayers money.

This is not made up by the defence companies. The Defence Procurement Minister confirmed the £1billion with me on Monday evening. They knew the likely price when they made the deicison to delay.

Unite Criticises Lib Dem MP over Aircraft Carrier Contract

Unite the Union reacted with dismay after yesterday's 'predictable' responses to the
future of the MoD aircraft carrier contract after a leaked document suggested a
£1BN hike in cost to build the two vessels.

The ranks of the ill-informed, including Willie Rennie MP who claimed that Labour are 'busting the bank', responded after a leak emanating from lead contractors for the construction of the two aircraft carriers. Alliance Management Board (AMB), suggested the possibility of 400-500 redundancies after the projected cost rose from £4BN to £5BN over the last year.

However Unite, who have substantial membership at both the Rosyth and Clydeside yards which will undertake work on a significant bulk of the contract, have hit back suggesting that the likes of the Lib Dem Member for Dunfermline & West Fife have missed the point completely.

Unite National Officer for Aerospace and Shipbuilding, Bernie Hamilton said, "When will these people realise that AMB's 'leak' is designed to do one thing and one thing only and that is to force the Government to agree to the increase in costs wanted by the employers (Carrier Alliance) for the extension to the in-service dates.
Those of us actually involved in the industry understood that the agreement to extend the build programme, to create a better payment schedule for the Government, would come at an increased cost.

Predictably employers know only one way to force a Labour Government into meeting their demands on costs and that is to publicly threaten hard working families and their future employment.

Mr Rennie and others have bought this leak hook, line and sinker and in their desperate efforts to make themselves look relevant to the electorate they have shown themselves to be political novices. "
ENDS