Unite, the largest union in the country, has warned that hundreds of jobs could be lost in Cumbria if the Trident nuclear deterrent is delayed because the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has to bear the full £20bn of renewal costs.
The union said that if the MoD has to stump up the full-cost of building the submarines – traditionally borne by the Treasury – thousands more defence jobs could go as other conventional programmes are slashed to pay for Trident.
The 13,000 jobs that could be under threat are at Barrow (where the submarines are built), Faslane (where they are based), Derby (where the nuclear reactors are built) and the Devonport dockyard, Plymouth (where the subs are refitted and repaired).
Bernie Hamilton, Unite’s national officer, aerospace and shipbuilding, said: “Up to 13,000 jobs could be at risk if Trident is delayed and any lengthy delay will mean that Britain is in danger of losing the skills and ability to build such submarines.”
“The picture gets worse if George Osborne continues to insist that the MoD, already facing cuts of 10 to 20 per cent as part of the comprehensive spending review, has to slash conventional weapons’ programmes to pay for Trident. We could then be talking about losing thousands more jobs than the initial 13,000 – that figure will be dwarfed as the axe falls.”
Source NW Business Insider
Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago on Technorati and have been reading it over the past few days I really like it.
Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!