COUNCIL LEADER’S OPEN RR LETTER
Councillor Ross asks for firm to reconsider
Rolls-Royce’s CEO has received an open letter from Council Leader John Ross urging him to rethink the axing of 700 local jobs.
The aerospace giant announced last week that the historic maintenance, repair and overhaul division at its Inchinnan site, which was once East Kilbride’s biggest employer, would be the hardest hit by job losses, with workers across South Lanarkshire affected.
Now 545 residents in East Kilbride are facing redundancy – three years after the firm transferred 600 workers out of EK.
Over 50,000 people have signed an online petition against the job cuts, with Union Convenor of the division, Tam Mitchell, describing the jobs blow as “devastating” for generations of East Kilbride families.
Mr Ross, Skills and Employability spokesman for the City Region, has urged chief executive Warren East not to repeat a decision that saw East Kilbride lose part of its industrial heritage.
He wrote: “While that announcement caused me great disappointment and has dismayed so many local people, I am reaching out to you in a spirit of co-operation. I hope you will receive this message in that spirit and will be willing to engage with local authorities, the Scottish Government and its agencies, and staff representatives, to deliver the best possible future for our local communities and the economy.
“As you know, East Kilbride and Rolls-Royce were synonymous for decades, a historic link that was only broken in 2018 when the East Rogerton test bed was shut. Three years before then, when the main site in the town was closed, some 600 Rolls-Royce workers were transferred to Inchinnan. A large number of those workers still live in East Kilbride or elsewhere in South
Lanarkshire, and inevitably many of them will now be affected by the redundancies planned at Inchinnan.
“In other words, having uprooted themselves just five years ago, after being told it was the only way to save their jobs, they now find themselves at significant risk of being out of work anyway.
“The departure of Rolls-Royce was a significant blow for the town of East Kilbride and all of South Lanarkshire. Part of our industrial heritage was lost forever, and your company left East Kilbride without putting in place anything significant in terms of an economic legacy or offering support for the future. That was and remains a matter of real regret for the community of East Kilbride and South Lanarkshire as a whole.
“However, as I said, the main purpose of this letter is to urge you not to repeat those decisions. We all understand that every business, large or small, is having to contend with the devastating blow that is COVID-19. We have never had to contend with something of this scale, but here in South Lanarkshire we have been reaching out to help local businesses and to assist those affected by job losses.
“We do this because we believe that when it comes to responding to the pandemic, we are all in it together. I am urging you, Mr East, and RollsRoyce, to take the same approach.”
He added: “We ask simply that you put your redundancy plans on hold and work with us all to find a better future. Above all, please do not leave Inchinnan in the way you left East Kilbride, and do not let down for a second time those loyal staff who moved to a new place of work many miles away because that way, you said, their livelihoods would be protected.”
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