Ship Building in the U.K.

More's the pity:(

In 1957 I was a 16 year old galley boy working bye an Eagle Oil Tanker in Camel Lairds ( The San Fernando) and almost brought the whole shipyard to a standstill. My crime was that I had painted my own cabin one night. The union man thought it was a capitol offence me taking the work of a fully qualified painter. Looking at Grangemouth in 2013, (56 years later,) but not knowing the full facts it seems very little has changed.

What a sad state of affairs.

John Albert Evans

Re. U.K. yards. My mate in Cammell Lairds (Ship Repair Manager) has got productivity up and demarcation out. In the early 70's docking on the Tyne demarcation was disappearing and the way to get any job done that involved demarcation or the union was to wait until after 1500 hrs. when the Union guy knocked off for the day having spent the afternoon in the club. Then we just had to go and find any tradesman, show him the job and hey presto it was done.
Countless Governments have, since we joined the EU have kowtowed to Europe , strangling what was remaining of our ship building heritage and coupled with intransigent Union bosses meant that it was almost impossible for our yards to survive despite the best efforts and hard work of the men employed.
rgds
JA

My crime was that I had painted my own cabin one night. The union man thought it was a capitol offence me taking the work of a fully qualified painter. Looking at Grangemouth in 2013,

Hi John Albert
That happened to me, I was Mate on a tanker in dry dock at Walsend, it was January, cold and wet, so I told the Sailors to paint there own cabins and keep out of the weather. they were very happy to do that.
The Dry dock workers found out and a strike was starting. That is a dry dock job , the Man said, I said ` It is not on the spec, ` `Makes no difference you are doing my men out of a Job, `So I had to let them repaint the cabins again.
and they wonder why jobs go overseas,
I bet Walsend dry docks are empty for most of the year, .
Brian

The two new aircraft carriers,built in pieces in various yards, and then taken to Rosyth to be welded up, are already way over budget. surely, fixed prices should have been sought? somebody has got it wrong, again. No wonder we are in such a state! Meanwhile, our new RFA tankers, are being built in Korea, they would have kept our yards busy, instead of running them down. We used to build ships for everyone, now we can't even build them for ourselves!

just areply to all you union bashers you don't think for a minute that the boss s in the shipyards don't know whats going on ie who does what it suits them the way that was crap money crap working conditions crap mess conditions bit getting the best seagoing vessels in the world while they lived it up big profits big houses super yachts ie grangemouth

I dont think the Unions will trouble shipyards anymore, but whatever the case i wouldnt worry because every day now the Human race is destroying each other, the Unions have been superseded by incompetant govts, England U.S.A. Australia not all Labour either , Mr Bush stands out as sending the Americans to Bankruptsy through being a War monger, Mr Howard in Australia followed mr bushes every move and put his stamp on it, Mr Blair in England did exactly the same. We now have the Worlds human race argue-ing and fighting over anything and turning the World into the most untrustfull place ever. no fishing off the wharf because of Terrorist security. i wouldnt be worried about shipbuilding because everybody will be fighting everybody, unemployment could fall to the 1920,s figures again because of No Industries in Western countrys. Lets call it the twenty year Gap when people were nice to each other, the memory has slipped the rest of the World, its all about greed money and getting to the top of the Political pile of muck.
Shipbuilding wont even register to the Braindead Politicians, they only think of their fat salaries all supplied by you and I, i bet not many people write to their Local MP and tell him what they honestly think, thats why they continue to get away with everything.
They get thrown out and another load of Braindead Govt people come in, no body does a thing. Glenn

If you look deep enough into it you will find it was Balir who convinced Bush that they must go to war.

But here in Oz we are slowly closing all our ship building facilities. The latest ARN ship had the hull built in Spain and shipped out here to be fitted out, we apparently no longer have the capacity to do it ourselves.
But for you I think the EU has a lot to answer for. Talking last night with my brother in law in London, latests from Brussels where are the sprouts live, Vacumn cleaners must from Jan 1 be no more than 1600 Watts. Got to save energy you know.

Re post # 26 , I am not bashing the Unions , I believe they are a necessity , but they led British Shipbuilders by the nose down a slippery slope . I don't believe British Shipbuilders was owned by an oligarch , I believe we as a nation owned it . But the extreme left , the Communists and Several other extreme groups preyed on the indifference of the average union member , and set out to destroy progressive improvements in several industries. , we now have one of the Worlds best cat industries , without the influence of Dereck Robinson amongst others . No Rigger , I am not bashing the Unions , I have 48 years of membership behind me , I am bashing the intransigent lunatic fringe that became the elected officials , all because we could not be bothered to vote , I am worker bashing , our indifference gave us the donkeys that led us

The union power was not only found in the UK and Oz. There were certain ports in the US where the Dockside unions were powerful, Chicago is one example of this. I am also certain though that this was a front for organized crime. Everyone thinks that the average American is well paid and might get a shock if they saw some of the hourly rates that some work for. It is branded as the land of opportunity as are all so called democratic countries. However we cant all be millionaires and a lot of sections are probably too honest to take advantage of the system and remain honest and poor by others standards. Unions are necessary to keep some employers in line and sometimes the government also. It is every mans right to withdraw his labour and sometimes this is the only resort. See what happens when they have a national stoppage, then governments start changing their attitude, as their position is then untenable and they are going to have to go and look for proper jobs themselves. Honest politicians and millionaires are hard to come by. John Sabourn