Joint Trade Union media Statement – GMB & Unite Scotland
Joint Trade Union media Statement – GMB & Unite Scotland
For immediate distribution: Thursday 16 January 2020
Scottish Offshore Wind Sector Summit Reaction
Responding to the outcomes of this morning’s (Thursday 16 January) Scottish Offshore Wind Sector Summit in Edinburgh, Pat Rafferty and Gary Smith, Scottish Secretaries of Unite and GMB said:
“We welcome these long overdue measures announced today by the Scottish Government in taking a harder line with the industry but this must be the start of change and not the end.
“The truth is it’s been a decade of failure for job creation in Scotland’s offshore wind sector.
“In 2011 employment in Scotland’s offshore wind sector was forecast to be 28,000 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs by 2020. We are nowhere near that and in the last few months redundancy notices have been handed out at supply chain firms like BiFab and CS Wind.
“In the same period, industry majors like SSE have been subsidised to the tune of billions of pounds of public money through the UK Government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme, with no link at all to domestic job creation commitments.
“It’s a scandalous story of missed opportunities and ultimately one of industrial and political failure.
“Without a detailed industrial plan involving the industry and a substantial programme of investment for our supply chain, our green jobs revolution will continue to be delivered in Spain, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Indonesia and China – anywhere but Scotland.”
ENDS
Contact: Andrew Brady, Unite Scotland Communications, on 078101 57922 or Peter Welsh, GMB Scotland Communications, on 07976 447077.
Notes to Editors:
Scottish Government ‘2020 Routemap for Renewable Energy in Scotland’, Section 1.12 ‘Economic Benefits’, published August 2011, accessible at:
<<https://www2.gov.scot/Publications/2011/08/04110353/3>>
“Broken Promises and Offshored Jobs - STUC report on employment in the low carbon and renewable energy economy”, ‘FTE employment within the LCRE economy for Scotland in 2017’ (p.4),published April 2019, accessible at: <<http://www.stuc.org.uk/files/Policy/Reasearch_Briefings/Broken%20promises%20and%20offshored%20jobs%20report.pdf>>
