Arnish yard unions dismiss Boris Johnson’s offshore wind farm pledge as ‘hollow words’

The Prime Minister made the pledge during a speech at the Conservative Party Conference, and also promised that £160m will be spent on building more wind turbines.

But Unite Scotland and the STUC have insisted talk is cheap and that his words need to be backed by action in ensuring Scottish yards, such as BiFab’s yard at Arnish, are given contracts to manufacture the turbines.

Unite Scotland also criticised the Prime Minister’s pledge to commit 60 per cent of the turbines to be manufactured in the UK as “rehashed rhetoric” following the recommendation by the UK Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) in March 2018 to the UK Government that Supply Chain Plans should achieve 60 per cent of life cycle costs to be UK sourced by 2030.

In recent weeks SSE announced that Scottish-based firm BiFab had not secured any contract work from the Seagreen project with all of the platforms for its 114 turbines to be manufactured in China and the United Arab Emirates.

This followed the minimal work awarded to BiFab by EDF through the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind farm project, which will consist of 54 turbines.

Those desicions prompted former Arnish workers, trade unions and community leaders to launch a campaign in support of the Isle of Lewis yard which has been lying idle with no work in sight.

Unite Scottish Secretary Pat Rafferty, said: “The announcement by the Prime Minister that the UK will commit to 60 per cent of turbines to be manufactured domestically is rehashed rhetoric.

“The UK Government has repeatedly failed to act on recommendations for years and belatedly adopting this target only serves to highlight their years of inaction and abandonment of the domestic supply chain.

“The onshore and offshore wind sector in Scotland is on life support.

“We have the BiFab yards in Lewis and Fife, and CS Wind in Campbeltown sitting idle.

“The Prime Minister’s pledge is hollow words for these communities.

“SSE is awarding work everywhere but Scotland. EDF awarding scraps from the table. CS Wind’s Korean owners have mothballed its factory. Talk is cheap. We need action and we need that right now.

“We urgently need the Contracts for Difference Scheme totally reformed to legally ensure that domestic based firms are guaranteed work from the billions of pounds being poured into the on and offshore wind sector.

“The reality is that the people of Fife, Lewis and Argyll and Bute haven’t seen a penny of it.”

The STUC was equally scathing, describing the Prime Minister’s speech as “25 minutes of waffle to Tory party faithful and a drop in the ocean of green investment needed”.

STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “Rather than offer real solutions to workers and citizens in Scotland and the UK, the Prime Minister chose to eulogise the private sector and speak to the Tory party faithful.”

She added: “Compared to what is needed, £160 million is a drop in the ocean. We need a green economic stimulus in the region of £13 billion for Scotland, not £160 million for the UK.

“For more than a decade, we’ve been told by politicians of all stripes that Scotland will become the Saudi Arabia of renewables.

“However, jobs in offshore wind have fallen in recent years as multinationals take ownership of our resources at the same time as they offshore jobs around the world.

“The Prime Minister’s speech offered nothing to address this – nothing on local content, nothing on addressing multinational control, and nothing on trade union rights.”

The Action for Arnish campaigners say there is a great sense of frustration on the island about the way Arnish has been neglected.

Speaking at the campaign launch last month, spokesman Iain Macleod said: “We need to fight for the future of the yard and the jobs that depend upon it which are critical to the island’s future.”

The campaign has the backing of the GMB, as well as Unite Scotland and the STUC.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has also given the campaign its support.

Councillor Donald Crichton, Chairman of the Sustainable Development Committee, who, together with leader Roddie Mackay, is a signatory to the statement by the campaign group, said he sahered the frustration at the lack of progress in securing contracts for the yard.

Conservative, Labour and SNP politicians have also spoken in favour of the campaign.

And there has also been support from former UK Energy Minister and Isle of Lewis resident, Brian Wilson, who said: “This is a campaign the whole island should get behind.

“The key demand is that the Arnish facility, which was created through past public investment, must be available to any company capable of bringing work into it, rather than sterilised by a deal that has failed to deliver.”