Union leaders have vowed to continue the battle for BiFab, despite a shock round of redundancies announced today.
Senior executives from new owners DF Barnes issued statutory redundancy notices to 35 of the remaining 43 core staff, less than three weeks after it was revealed the Canadian firm had bought the yards in Methil, Burntisland and Stornoway.
With no new contracts secured beyond this month, some job losses had been expected but the scale and speed of the redundancies has been met with surprise and dismay.
Joint trade union secretaries Gary Smith and Pat Rafferty said: “It means that some workers will be out of a job as early as two weeks time and most will gone in three months.”
They vowed: “The trade unions will not be found wanting and our battle for BiFab continues.
“We knew the road ahead would be hard and the need for new contracts is obvious but clearly a major problem has emerged in terms of the future prospects for fresh work over the last fortnight.”
Shadow Scottish Secretary Lesley declared the announcement a terrible shock for BiFab workers, who only a few weeks ago thought the future of the firm was secure.
“Clearly we need answers as to what led DF Barnes to take such drastic action so soon, especially given the takeover of the firm was heralded as so positive,” she added.
For the full story see The Courier on Saturday
