DEAL Agreement is first step forward
BY WEST SCOTLAND MSP NEIL BIBBY
More than 500 jobs have been safeguarded after an agreement between Rolls-Royce and trade union officials at Inchinnan.
A Memorandum of Understanding between Unite the Union and the engineering giant will protect workers from compulsory redundancies for five years.
It is an agreement that has involved sacrifices and it comes at a time of real uncertainty.
Nonetheless, it is an agreement that will provide a level of security to workers at an enormously anxious time.
Covid hit aviation hard.
Travel restrictions made holidays impossible, kept families apart and prevented many of the business trips that sustained airlines and the industries that support them.
Here in Renfrewshire, with Glasgow Airport operating at a fraction of its capacity, we know that better than most.
There are not the same requirements for aircraft maintenance – as workers at the maintenance, repair and overhaul side of the business found out last year when
Rolls-Royce went on a jobs cull. Manufacturing has also been hit.
It is, of course, encouraging that this agreement will safeguard manufacturing jobs but there is so much more to do.
We have a long way to go if we are to build these sectors of our economy back up and ensure that Renfrewshire can take full advantage of economic recovery when the covid crisis is over.
Half of the Rolls-Royce site at Inchinnan is empty. It has been ever since the MRO business was wound up.
Many workers remain concerned that Rolls-Royce will go back on their word, arguing that the costs of operating out of a half-empty facility make what remains of their operations in Renfrewshire unviable. We cannot allow that to happen. There must now be a concerted effort to find a new occupier for the empty parts of the Inchinnan site – ideally another jobs-rich operation led by the engineering giant.
There have been no shortage of suggestions, many which can be delivered by the skilled workforce there at the moment or those who had recently been made redundant.
As the aviation and aerospace industries recover, they cannot go back to the way things were.
They have to build back to something better.
There is huge, unexplored potential for greener engines and new technologies in aerospace.
Many of the skills of the workforce can be adapted to other forms of manufacturing, such as making and maintaining machinery for the renewable energy sector.
There is unexplored potential for diversification too.
There is a place for industry- led innovation but also for government in supporting key sectors to make full use of the nation’s industrial base and our people’s skills.
That is how we can power our way out of a covid recession.
Trade unions have warned that the sector faces three challenges - recovering from the pandemic, adjusting to the UK’s new position outside of the EU and tackling climate change.
Government can help the industry meet those challenges by investing in the recovery and supporting procurement from local manufacturers, like RollsRoyce.
Government action can do more than get the economy moving again, it can help industry make the transition to a stronger, greener, post-covid economy rich with jobs and opportunities for Renfrewshire.