KEEP CALMAC AND CARRY ON

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2015 :: RMTnews 19 If the current timetable runs its course we are almost a year away from a potential privatisation of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services currently operated within the public sector by Caledonian MacBrayne. RMT has made its position clear – any privatisation of CalMac would be a wholesale betrayal of the Scottish people and would fly in the face of Scottish National Party claims to stand shoulder to shoulder with working people against the greed and exploitation of the big money-grabbing corporations. The way that the proposed timetable falls means that an announcement on the future of these crucial services will fall just after the Scottish Parliamentary elections on May 5 next year. However, that timetable is not cast in stone and RMT believes that it should be redrawn so that the formal announcement is made before polling day, allowing Scottish voters to have an opportunity to cast judgement on the Government’s record on ferries policy. There is no excuse for delaying the announcement other than for trying to prevent the future of CalMac from being a major election issue. RMT also intends to deal head on with the claims from the Scottish Transport Minister that a hiving off of CalMac to Serco or some similar outfit is “not privatisation”. Of course it is! If a private company is allowed to take over a public service for profit that it is privatisation whether it is on our railways, in our hospitals or on our ferry services. Attempts to spin your way out of that one are frankly ludicrous and will fool no one. The bidder currently in the frame to take over if the decision is taken to privatise is a company called Serco and their name should fill everyone concerned about the future of the CalMac services with horror. This is a company with form as long as your arm when it comes to failing in public services, who got caught out electronically tagging prisoners who were dead, were lumped with heavy-duty fines and banned from bidding for Westminster contracts. They are not fit to be running Scotland’s ferry services and the recent collapse in Serco’s share price will mean that they will push even harder for a dividend arrangement in the CHFS contract that allows them to squeeze the maximum profit from taxpayer subsidy and passenger fares. RMT is in no doubt whatsoever that CalMac should be awarded the contract so that lifeline services and jobs stay in the public sector. Privatisation would be a shocking waste. Public investment in Scottish ferries and infrastructure will exceed £400 million in the coming years and this should benefit publicly operated lifeline ferry services not greedy vultures from the private sector. CalMac has also run CHFS routes at a profit in every year of the current contract. Around £8.42 million has been paid back to the Scottish government in dividends or subsidy clawback since 2008-09. If the contract is privatised and handed to Serco, all dividends would be taken out of the Scottish ferry industry and straight into the pockets of Serco’s international portfolio of private shareholders. CalMac provides crucial services to the Scottish people but the workforce are also active and respected members of their local communities, a fact reflected in the overwhelming support we enjoyed when we took the difficult to strike earlier this year. We should be proud that CalMac provides decent jobs in areas that are under constant economic pressure. The threat to our future must be lifted and RMT welcomes the support of the Daily Record as our fight continues. KEEP CALMAC AND CARRY ON As every member in Scotland gets a campaign postcard with this magazine, Mick Cash explains why CalMac should be in the public sector