Upper Clyde Shipbuilders

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Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Limited

Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was a Scottish

shop stewards Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid
, among others.

Formation

The Company was formed in February 1968 from the amalgamation of five Upper Clyde Shipbuilding firms:

Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, in which UCS held a controlling stake of 51%.[1]

The consolidation was a result of the

Lower Clyde, Swan Hunter on Tyneside and Robb Caledon on the east coast of Scotland.[2] The government had a 48.4% minority holding in the consortium and provided a £5.5m interest-free government loan over the first three years. UCS had a combined order book at the time worth £87m.[3]

Collapse of UCS

In June 1971, the loss-making Upper Clyde Shipbuilders went into receivership (only one yard of the five,

creditors and resulted in severe cash flow problems for the company. After the government refused UCS a £6m working capital loan as a lender of last resort, the company was forced to enter liquidation although the yards had a full order book and a forecasted profit in 1972.[4]

Work-in

After the company's collapse, rather than striking, unions representing the shipyard's workers decided to conduct a "work-in" to complete orders already in place.[1] The work-in was led by a group of young shop stewards, including Jimmy Reid, Jimmy Airlie, Sammy Barr and Sammy Gilmore.[5] Reid wanted to ensure the workers projected the best image of the yard workers he possibly could, and he insisted on tight discipline. He addressed the workers at the yards, where he instructed them that there should be "no hooliganism, no vandalism and no bevvying [drinking]".[6]

Work-in support

The shipbuilders' tactics worked, and public sympathy in the Glasgow area and beyond was on the side of the workers who took part. That was backed up with demonstrations in Glasgow, one of which was attended by around 80,000 marchers.[7] At one demonstration, on Glasgow Green, Tony Benn addressed those in attendance, and Matt McGinn and Billy Connolly (both former shipyard workers) offered entertainment to the gathered crowd. The campaign was also well-backed financially, and at one meeting for the campaign, Jimmy Reid was able to announce that the campaign had received a £5,000 contribution from John Lennon, to which an attendee replied "but Lenin's deid!" (dead).[8]

Analysis of the work-in

The Thatcher Conservative government would be more far-reaching in its attempts to remove state involvement in industrial affairs.[9]

Restructuring and aftermath

In February 1972, the Conservative government relented to the demands of the workers and restructured the yards around two new companies:

Scotstoun Marine Ltd (formerly Connells). Yarrow Shipbuilders had already withdrawn from UCS in April 1970 and regained its status as an independent company (until 1977, when it was nationalised as part of British Shipbuilders, along with Govan Shipbuilders). A fourth yard, at Clydebank (formerly John Brown), was sold to Marathon Oil as an oil-rig fabrication yard; which eventually closed in 2001.[1]

In 1999, two major shipyards on the Upper Clyde (the former Yarrow and Fairfields yards) were acquired by the defence contractor

BAE Systems Surface Ships.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Records of Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd, shipbuilders and engineers, Glasgow, Scotland". University of Glasgow Archive Services. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  2. ^ Strategies of Growth, Diversification and Rationalization in the Evolution of Concentration in British Shipbuilding, D. Todd, 1983 Pdfserve.informaworld.com
  3. ^ "Glasgow Caledonian University Archives". Gcu.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  4. ^ Modern Shandon shipbuilding boss Helensborough Heritage, 29 December 2008
  5. ^ Steven, Alisdair (11 October 2011). "Sammy Gilmore Obituary". The Glasgow Herald. Retrieved 24 January 2013.
  6. ^ There will be bevvying, The Scotsman, 16 July 2002
  7. ^ "Scran : Marchers supporting the Upper Clydeside Shipbuilders, Glasgow, 1971". Scran.ac.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  8. ^ "Sunnygovan.com". Sunnygovan.com. Retrieved 16 September 2017.
  9. ISBN 9780631209683. Archived from the original
    on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
  10. ^ "An aerial view from the south of the Fairfield Shipyard, taken around 1932". The Glasgow Story. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  11. ^ "An aerial view of the River Clyde looking down-river from the Yarrow's Shipyard, c 1932". The Glasgow Story. Retrieved 16 October 2022.

External links

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