SHIPBUILDERS WARN OF REDUNDANCIES

As Britain's shipbuilders to the now defunct Upper anxiously await the gov. Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was needed even by his own comernment's nearly comple- pany to restore 'the financial ted report on the indus- strength drained by galloping inflation'. try's future, they tace disaster of unparalleled In the face of a concerted lobby by the shipbuilders, their dimensions. friends and their MPs in April last year, the Tories came across with £50m in grants and loans to help with the modernization it was claimed was crucial for survival. month before At the same time they 1972 Anthony Barber budget, appointed a firm of consultants, the shipbuilders waged an in- Booz, Allan and Hamilton, to defatigable campaign for cash investigate the cash needs of aid, including their the industry and a draft of spokesmen the government's their report was handed to the own chief economic adviser. government a fortnight ago. Donald MacDougal said: said: This On March Speculation suggests that demands from shipbuilders for industry where other even bigger handouts — over countries are giving assistance £200m according to Press leaks to their own hrm. On these —are likely. grounds it very hard to But only six months after The concisioni that we Barber's budget generosity, their plight has so deteriorated matching this kind that even cash is unlikely to assistance.' be sufficient. The managing die to Brit Un Uctober 10, 1972, the Scott-Lithgow's — one newly-elected president of the tain's most forward-looking Shipbuilders' and Repairers' shipbuilders, Mr A. Ross Belch. National Association, Mr Tony warned that a 'cash injection' Greenwell, warned that money on the scale of the £35m given was only one of the things the industry wanted-the other was protection.

He said: In this country the larger yards have work for another year or two, but some öf the: medium and smaller yards are already close to the stage where redundancies are inevitable.' Sure enough, less than four months later redundancies were declared at one of Britain's stumbling small yards - Robb and Caledon at Dundee. Greenwell called, predictably, for cash aid from the government, but the call was given a new twist by his plea that the money should gó to shipowners not shipbuilders.

More important, and for the first time, he called for 'concerted action' to prevent Japan from coming to dominate the world's shipbuilding markets.

He said: Our entry next year into the EEC provides an opportunity for participation in a European policy. 'The time is certainly right because our colleagues in the European shipyards are suffering just as much as we are. 'There are a number of possible approaches, but if negotiations with Japanese shipbuilders cannot produce results, then EEC maritime interests, and the vast employment they provide, must be safeguarded by action from all EEC governments.' Last week the position had hardened yet again and a S&RNA spokesman told me a common European maritime policy was now number one on the agenda.

the so-called US energy crisis.

Most observers agree that both these phenomena likely to disappear by this summer at the earliest and next summer at the latest.