TALKS aimed at averting strike action on Clyde and Hebrides CalMac ferry routes have broken down, with a union leader accusing management of "treating staff with contempt".
The acrimony renewed fears of industrial action in a dispute over plans to cut the annual pay of 70 members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association by up to 25%.
Leader Manuel Cortes said he was particularly angry CalMac managing director Martin Dorchester failed to show up for the talks "when he is planning wage cuts of as much as £6000 a year for our members".
Mr Cortes said: "We will be looking to enforce our executive decision on calling a strike ballot after that conference. He is treating his hard-working staff with contempt."
CalMac wants to buy out weekend and shift allowances, night working payments and annual holiday bonuses.
The union has won the backing of the Scottish TUC and Scottish Labour in the dispute.
Meanwhile, islanders on South Uist claim their ferry service is the worst in the islands, and that ministers have been dishonest over the costs of improving it.
They point out the service to North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist (population 5000) has only room for 1000 cars per week.
Transport Scotland said the agency stood by its costs based on a dedicated vessel being available every day on the route, year round.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article