Clyde nuclear safety fear

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Clyde nuclear safety fear

Trade union members at the Clyde Naval Base fear that additional cuts in funding may lead to a nuclear incident.



Members at the Faslane and Coulport naval facilities on the Clyde are starting a campaign against plans to cut the running costs of the Clyde Naval Base by a further £30m per year. Prospect and PCS are seriously concerned that these savings will result in a 20% cut in staff on top of the 32% that has been lost since the Base was part privatised in 2002 and that this will have a major impact on the safety culture across the Base.

Members' meetings across the Base had unanimously supported the setting up of the campaign and the use of whatever means possible to overturn the funding reduction.

The cuts would mean a loss of up to 500 jobs from the present combined workforce (civil servants and Babcocks) of 1,900 at the Clyde Naval Base. Base management has bid for £25m from the Ministry of Defence for a redundancy scheme to fund the job cuts.

Alan Grey, Clyde NITU Chairman and Chairman of the trade unions’ ‘Don’t take Risks with Nuclear Safety’ campaign said:

"Members are extremely worried. They want to stress that this is not a jobs preservation issue; this is very much a safety issue. These cuts will impact on already overstretched civil servants, service personnel and the privatised workforce and they believe that the extreme pressures staff are already enduring will be pushed beyond breaking point with catastrophic consequences for the workforce and the local community."

Staff at the Naval Base and across the MOD as a whole are worried that the present MOD policy of finding money for the front line by imposing cuts in the support side is short term and dangerous. Cutting that support simply to meet a lack of proper funding must eventually have a serious impact on the front line. They believe that more should be done to force the government to properly fund the Ministry of Defence and welcomed the recent contribution to the debate from the 1st Sea Lord, Sir Jonathan Band.

Dougie Brownlie, Clyde NITU Secretary and Secretary to the Campaign Committee said:

"The intervention of the most Senior Naval Officer is welcome and timely. Members are hopeful that this reflects a growing realisation amongst senior service officers and senior civil servants that the MOD is seriously under funded and that this has to be addressed urgently.

"Until this is addressed, members are committed to fighting any cuts that will impact on the safety culture across the Clyde Naval Base."

The intention is to argue against these cuts through MOD’s internal consultation processes but members’ meetings have made it clear they will use all legitimate means at their disposal to ensure that these cuts aren’t imposed.