Union chiefs tonight step-up their battle for three naval supply ships to be designed, built and assembled in Britain.
Four bids are competing for the £1.5billion deal for Fleet Solid Support vessels that will restock Royal Navy aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates.
But campaigners fear the bumper contract could be handed to a foreign-led bid - with British workers missing out.
The Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions has written to companies involved in the four bid teams, setting a series of tests.
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It wants them to state in their applications how much work will take place in the UK, at which shipyards and how their bid will help maintain the UK’s sovereign capability for shipbuilding.
The CSEU hopes to pile pressure on the Government to award the deal to the bid which will benefit British workers the most.
“We believe the planned Fleet Solid Support Ships programme is strategically important for the industry and the country,” it says in a letter to firms, seen by the Mirror.
“We are actively monitoring the competition that the Ministry of Defence has launched for these ships in order that our members can take a decision about whether to oppose, support or remain neutral on the bids of each consortium.”
The 40,000-tonne Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels will resupply Royal Navy warships, including the £6.2bn Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, with food, ammunition and explosives.
Four consortia were each given £5million by the MoD to develop their bids as the Government began the “competitive procurement phase”.
The shortlist includes Team UK, involving Babcock and BAE Systems; Mumbai-based Larsen & Toubro, which describes itself as “India's premier infrastructure developer”; Dutch firm Damen Group; and Team Resolute, led by Spanish shipbuilders Navantia.
Writing exclusively for the Mirror, CSEU general secretary Ian Waddell says: “If the Government is serious about leveling up, then that should be properly reflected in the way they assess the bids for FSS.”
GMB general secretary Gary Smith said: "The fact that essential military vessels risk being built with only a token UK supply chain at a time of international crisis betrays a failure of political leadership.
"We have a world-class shipbuilding industry and supply chain, and sustaining those skills is fundamental to our national security.
"Ministers aren't stepping up but bidders have the chance to do the right thing and commit to a meaningful UK-build and supply chain for this £1.5bn order."
Unite national officer for shipbuilding Rhys McCarthy said: “Companies bidding for UK Government shipbuilding contracts must be required to design, build and maintain the new vessels in the UK.
“The UK shipbuilding industry needs a constant drumbeat of work so it can invest in the future and the Government must ensure that any bid which puts UK jobs and skills at risk is immediately ruled out.”
Prospect’s senior deputy general secretary Sue Ferns said: “If the UK is serious about maintaining strategic industrial capacity, and using this capacity as a lever for a levelling-up agenda, it must understand that shipbuilding in the 21st Century is about ‘design, fabricate, build and maintain’.
“If we simply become a country which bolts together ships designed and constructed abroad then not only will there be no new jobs created but we will struggle to sustain the ones we already have - that’s why these five tests are key to delivering a strategic shipbuilding industry in the UK.”
Steelworkers' leaders hoped their members would benefit from the deal, with tens of thousands of tonnes of metal needed for the project.
Community union’s operations director Alasdair McDiarmid said: “A commitment to buying Britain’s steel is an investment in Britain.
“Contracts like those for the Fleet Solid Support Ships programme should not be awarded solely on the basis of cost, but must properly take into account the social and environmental benefits of sourcing locally.
“Buying Britain’s steel supports thousands of jobs, benefits our economy, provides value to the taxpayer and is better for the environment.
“ Russia ’s invasion of Ukraine reinforces that our defence supply chain is vital to our national security.
“Britain cannot become reliant on others for the steel and capabilities we need to build our warships and strategic infrastructure.”
Publishing the updated National Shipbuilding Strategy in the Commons earlier, Defence MinisterJeremy Quin said the FSS project would “have a very substantial element of UK-build within it”.
Boris Johnson visited the Cammell-Laird yard in Birkenhead, Merseyside, to trumpet the Government’s 30-year blueprint, it would lead to 150 naval and civilian vessels being built.
The Confederation for Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions' demands
- Bids must spell out where the design, build and assembly will take place, expressly identifying the percentage of UK work in the programme and what proportion of the supply chain, including steel, will be UK-based
- Bids must specify what process has been undertaken to meet the above requirement and which UK locations will be involved
- There must be demonstrable steps taken to ensure that the work is completed by the workforce in those yards including apprenticeships, training programmes and knowledge transfer systems
- Bids must include an impact assessment on the contribution of the programme to regional and national prosperity and demonstrate where the intellectual property will reside and potential benefit to future exports
- Bids must demonstrate how they will contribute to the UK’s sovereign capability to design, manufacture and maintain an independent standing Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary
Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions general secretary Ian Wadell writes exclusively for the Mirror
The shipbuilding industry is hi-tech and hi-skilled and drives our local economies outside of the south east.
It is a no-brainer that it should be a key plank of the levelling-up strategy.
The £1.5billion contract to build the Future Solid Support ships will support high streets and local businesses through the supply chain.
It will act as a bridge to the next round of naval procurement that will guarantee well paid skilled jobs for the next 50 years in places like Merseyside, Tyneside, the West Country, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
However, the contract has been shrouded in secrecy with overseas bidders subject to a non-disclosure agreement.
The Government won’t say how much of the work will be done in the UK or tell us exactly what social criteria will be used to select the winning bid.
We’ve taken matters into our own hands and have set five tests for FSS and are asking the bidding consortium to tell us exactly how much work will be done in the UK and what impact it will have on regional communities and the workforce.
Based on that information UK workers will decide which bid to support.
The Ministry of Defence is tying itself in knots trying to measure social value.
However, it doesn’t matter what yardstick you use if only a few percent of the overall score is for social value.
If the Government is serious about leveling-up, then that should be properly reflected in the way they assess the bids for FSS.
