Union row over battle to save yards

Britain's biggest manufacturing union.

Large-scale resignations from the Amalgamated Engineering and

Electrical Union were threatened by shop stewards in Devonport over

disciplinary proceedings against a full-time official who is pushing the

case for Trident submarine nuclear refit work to be transferred from

Scotland to England.

The man at the centre of the row, Mr Bill Goffin, Plymouth secretary

of the AEEU, has been summoned to appear before his executive committee

at a meeting next Tuesday to explain his outspoken support of the West

Country dockyard.

Yesterday, Mr Goffin remained unrepentant. ''I will continue to fight

for my members in a situation where only one of two yards is likely to

survive in the long term.''

He would be seeking legal advice and speaking to his own union

representative over the summons. ''If I am not allowed to take a lawyer

with me, I will not attend,'' he said. ''I think it is that serious.

''I have no doubt my job is on the line here but I have fought too

many fights with managements to give in to dictates over freedom of

speech from top union officials.''

The union official who has called Mr Goffin to London is Mr Gavin

Laird, Scots-born general secretary of the AEEU.

Last night, a senior shop steward from the electrical section of the

union in Devonport said: ''If Gavin Laird wants to see 11,000

resignations, he is going the right way about it. We stand by Bill

Goffin who is only saying what everyone in the dockyard knows to be the

truth.''

The shop steward said workers at the Rosyth yard, if they were honest,

must also know that ''it is either us or them''.

Another shop steward in Devonport said: ''We are all good trade

unionists here. If they ask our support for the nurses, or the miners,

we will be the first to raise our hands. But what we are talking about

is the jobs of our own members and the survival of a region.

''There is no question about it. We stand by the case for Devonport to

be the sole yard to refit nuclear submarines and we stand by Bill

Goffin.''

According to Mr Laird, the Plymouth official has an over-inflated view

of his own importance. The future of both dockyards was a matter for

national officials, said Mr Laird.

But yesterday, Mr Goffin said that the national union policy to

maintain both Devonport and Rosyth as nuclear refit yards was

unrealistic. Indeed, it was nothing short of hypocrisy.

The great danger was that the internal dispute between a national and

local official could divert attention from a campaign to save jobs at

both yards.

The views of Mr Goffin -- supported by senior shop stewards at the

yard -- certainly raised grave doubts about the union's policy to secure

the survival of both yards as nuclear bases.

Union members in Devonport wanted Rosyth to continue -- but not as the

yard that would refit Trident submarines.

Mr Goffin said that, if the Trident work went to Rosyth, all nuclear

submarines would go to Scotland for refits. That would ultimately lead

to the closure of Devonport.

He would continue to fight to save jobs in his area and that meant he

would continue to push the case for all nuclear refit work to come to

Plymouth. In Plymouth, MPs, councillors, and union officials have united

in a major campaign to ensure the survival of Devonport. It has not

escaped their attention that the key players in this issue are mainly

Scots.

They include Chancellor Norman Lamont, Defence Secretary Malcolm

Rifkind, Fleet Commander in Chief Admiral Jock Slater, Opposition leader

John Smith, his Shadow Chancellor and also MP for Dunfermline East,

Gordon Brown, and union secretary Gavin Laird.

Mr Goffin said there was no antagonism towards colleagues in Rosyth.

But he pointed out that, when the Government first indicated it would be

looking for one yard to do nuclear refits, there was no outcry.

It was only after The Herald reported that Devonport was the favoured

yard that it became an issue. ''Why was this the case?'' asked Mr

Goffin.

Without the nuclear work, the writing would be on the wall for

Devonport. Already 7000 jobs had gone in the yard since privatisation

and this followed a previous 2000 job loss. There was no campaign in

Rosyth against these job losses.

''It is no good trying to believe that the same kind of situation

which prevailed when we were under the Ministry of Defence remains the

same today when we are two privatised dockyards,'' he said.