Fairfield workers told: Don’t desert the sinking ship

IT was October 1965 and the fate of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, owners of one of the Clyde’s most modern yards, in Govan, was in the balance. Financial pressures had led to an official receiver being appointed to manage the company and try to save it. Fairfield had completed a £4 million modernisation scheme just a year earlier.

Although there were about

£30m of uncompleted orders, losses over the previous few years had been heavy, and a heavier loss was expected in 1965.

On October 18 it was reported that talks would begin between the directors and the bank-appointed receiver in an effort to stop the company from going into liquidation.

The Glasgow Herald noted the belief in some quarters that the receivership might be the first step towards a closer integration of shipbuilding and, perhaps, mergers on the Clyde. “With £30m of uncompleted orders at stake,” it added, “it is clearly imperative that a quick solution be found to Fairfield’s immediate difficulties.”

That same day, after a meeting of Fairfield workers (photographed by the Herald’s Arthur Kinloch), union leaders, shop stewards and staff sent a telegram to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, urging him to set up an inquiry into the financial affairs of the company.

Govan’s Labour MP, John Rankin, sent Wilson a telegram, saying: “Please adorn the achievements of your first year by ensuring that the Fairfield shipbuilding yard in Govan is not compelled to shut down”.

Mr A.jamieson, shop stewards’ convener at the Fairfield-rowan marine engineering works, told the meeting that the workers should not jeopardise their case by leaving: “I am quite sure that if you went out of the door you could go down the road and get a job at £1 a week more. But it would be a crying shame if we allowed Fairfield to be sold down the river. Don’t desert the sinking ship.”

The Govan yard would eventually become part of the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) consortium.