BIFAB Workers' Occupation And March Secures Jobs And Pay Guarantee

Workers at the three threatened Burntisland Fabrications - BiFab - yards in Fife have won a guarantee that their jobs and wages will be secured, at least until April 2018. Action by workers and the GMB and Unite trade unions has delivered this important breakthrough.

- Philip Stott

On 12  November, the company said it had no money to pay wages and was giving notice that it intended to enter administration. The jobs of 1,400 workers who either work for BiFab or who rely on the company for work via contractors were hanging by a thread.

At mass meetings on 13 November workers agreed a ‘work-in’ in order to complete the contract - without being paid - but also to ensure they occupied the sites to prevent any attempts at asset-stripping.

As Gary Smith, Scottish secretary of the GMB, told a rally outside the Scottish parliament: “If you had not occupied those yards then your jobs would have gone and the yards shut.”

The occupying of the yards, beginning a ‘work-in’ and a mass march on 16 November to the Scottish parliament to demand government action has paid off.

Work continues

The major companies involved in the project have agreed to provide BiFab with money that will allow the work to continue and workers to be paid.