Quote Originally Posted by Deeranged View Post
And a very good answer it is.

I feel some of the reason we can't compete effectively in ship building and fabrication with Poland, Singapore etc. is to do with the unions (who I despise by the way) making unrealistic wage and condition demands and over egging the H&S. It's so easy now for any employee to just turn around and say 'no, I'm not working in the rain' or 'I have a bit of a cold so can't come in today' knowing they're untouchable and will likely still earn a full wage. So schedules go right and work doesn't get completed on time.

I was brought up to expect a fair day's wage for a fair day's work and I deliver for my employer on that basis. Other countries still work that way and their yards are much more competitive and just as importantly, reliable, than our yards are.

These ferries would likely have been completed by now if the order had gone overseas but then the people employed in this country would not have been working on them, our tax money would have gone to that country and not back into our economy.

It will have been a quandry for the SG at the time of award however there does seem to be more than one thing smelling slightly off over the entire process. I suspect a bit of an 'understanding' in over promising and under delivering up front for one thing.
Ferguson’s Shipyard was the dearest of all the tenders so CMAL bosses moved the goalposts to allow the Ferguson’s tender fall in price to compete with the other shipyards tendering for the two new ferries. However the CMAL bosses did not notify the other shipyards tendering for the two new ferries contract that they had changed the terms of the contract specifically for Ferguson’s Shipyard.
The SNP were determined that Ferguson’s were awarded the contract because Alex Salmond’s pal Jim McColl had been persuaded to purchase Ferguson’s out of administration two months before the September 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Bad news was not allowed in the run up to September 2014.
In my opinion awarding the two new ferries contract to Jim McColl’s Ferguson Shipyard was payback time.
The cost of the two new ferries was deliberately kept below £100 million and the normal insurance provided by the winning shipyard was not provided in the Ferguson Shipyard tender.