Building ships to microchips

June 1st , 2009

The recent round of job losses at Hewlett Packard is a sore blow to the workforce in the Inverclyde area.

Hard on the heels of the TSC redundancies, it is exactly the sort of news we didn’t want to hear.

I can only hope the various agencies swing into action and do what they can to minimise the impact of this announcement.

My colleague Trish Godman MSP raised the devastating news in Parliament and I listened to the First Minister’s assurance that he would do what he could to assist those workers facing redundancy.

But we need more than warm words at this time and if the handling of the TSC redundancies is anything to go by, I am far from confident.

I am on record voicing my disgust at the complacency shown by the Scottish Government, in particular the Enterprise Minister Jim Mather, when I raised the job threat in Greenock caused by T-Mobile’s decision to off-shore work to The Philippines.

Despite representations from me and the company, the minister tried to tell me everything in the garden was rosy and sat on his hands.

We only saw a flicker of action when further job losses where announced in Falkirk by TSC.

But it wasn’t until last week that we saw any engagement and the First Minister met with T-Mobile, just as the process of closing the TSC factory got underway.

The result of that meeting, held fully three months after I first raised the issue, was so dire that the First Minister, who is not averse to a soundbite for the media, refused to comment.

While it appears to be too little too late for those workers, I would urge the Scottish Government not to make the same mistake again.

As a community we have seen changes in industry, from building ships to microchips. And we have seen shipbuilding move to the Far East and the electronics industry move to Eastern Europe.

But we also know that if Inverclyde, and Scotland, is to continue being a good place to do business, the Scottish Government needs to engage proactively with companies like TSC and HP, not just at a time of crisis, but also, more importantly, before the crisis is upon us.