GOVAN: The fight for shipbuilding

JAMIE Webster, the indefatigable GMB convener at the Govan shipyard, is rarely short of a memorable phrase.

After 48 hours in which a leaked memo suggested the yard and its sister at Scotstoun might close, and politicians fought to out-do one another in support of the workers ahead of the general election, he smiles as he sums up the mixed mood on site.

Next Tuesday, the yard will begin cutting steel on the first of two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, each priced at around £2.5 billion. The order book is full until 2014, but after the carriers are completed there will be an obvious hole to fill with lesser domestic projects and export orders.

If that hole isn't filled, said the leaked memo, owners BVT Surface Fleet might close both the Clyde operations and concentrate on their other UK yard in Portsmouth, with the loss of 3500 skilled jobs on the river, and the end of one of Scotland's totemic industries.

"It was like being told you'd won the lottery but you were terminally ill," Webster says. "Here we were all geared up for the carriers, and the cutting of the steel, and Princess Anne doing the ceremony, and then we hear we might be closing in 2014."

Billy McKay, Webster's counterpart on Unite, admits it was a blow, but not a fatal one. "The workforce was happy with how things were going, but the gloss has been taken off that."

Yet both are surprisingly upbeat. Unlike the thunderstruck staff at Diageo in Kilmarnock, staff on the Clyde have been here before.

"We've faced bigger crises than this," says Webster. "Ten years ago we were within 24 hours of shutting. The worst scenario is that, post-carrier there's insufficient work from Ministry of Defence procurement to keep three yards. That's not a surprise. Feast and famine to the yards are nothing new."

He says more export work and support vessels for the navy are the solution - and keeping up the high quality of engineering on site.

The belief among many MSPs and MPs is that BVT may have had a hand in the leak in order to tie down political support for future orders.

Webster says he has no evidence of that, but wouldn't be shocked if somebody was "stage managing" events.

"Defence is not sexy. It's not a vote-winner. Health and education are. The only time defence is a vote-winner is when we're under threat. Some people fly kites."

Alan Johnston, BVT's chief executive, fiercely asserts his memo was stolen.

Nevertheless, the leak turned the Clyde yards into a political honeypot.

Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy cleared his diary and donned a hard hat to ride to the rescue, while the SNP claimed Labour had accepted the closure idea by agreeing to fund redundancies.

But after three intense days, Murphy and Johnston were able to boast a deal had been done for another 15 years' work; crisis over, for now.

As Webster departs, two klaxon bursts signal a stream of men on to Govan Road. The discipline of working for a military contractor means tight lips are the norm, but there is little sign of anxiety.

The yard humour that helped forge Billy Connolly is still evident though.

"What we got told was don't believe the newspapers," says one man.

"No offence."