CGTN Europe interviewed George Brash, Unite Regional Officer
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00:00The British company that built the Titanic has been rescued in a deal with a Spanish
00:04state-owned company. Navantia will secure all four of the shipyards belonging to Harland and
00:10Wharf, saving 1,000 jobs. The shipbuilding firm was launched 163 years ago, but it fell into
00:16administration in September. George Brash is from Unite, a union representing many of Harland and
00:22Wharf's workers. We've welcomed the announcement that Navantia is to take on all four yards.
00:30We will now engage with them in terms of making sure the deal and the commitments they've made,
00:35they are delivered for the workforce. They have given us commitments on the jobs, the pay,
00:40the conditions, no break in continued service, and they are all positive. So we look forward
00:48to hopefully a bright future. And Harland and Wharf is a company that has a long history in
00:53Belfast, isn't it? What does being able to safeguard this company mean for the community?
01:01It's absolutely massive to the community. I think somebody said to me this morning,
01:08I was down at site this morning, and what they said is when you fly into Belfast,
01:14you fly past the two cranes, the yellow cranes, which are iconic. And he says, when you see those
01:21cranes, you know you're home. And when people visit Northern Ireland, that's the first thing
01:26they see when they fly into Belfast airport. And I think that says it all in terms of
01:31what the iconic site means. But for the communities, the jobs that are created
01:40through, and across community jobs, by the way, you know, Harland and Wharf is situated in the east,
01:46but there's many workers come from across community background. And it's absolutely
01:53massive that jobs are secured there, and potentially jobs will be created there in the future.
02:00And obviously, it's known perhaps best for building the Titanic. How significant is this
02:06for the shipbuilding industry as a whole in Britain?
02:12Well, again, it's absolutely massive. You know, shipbuilding is spectacular in Belfast,
02:19although we're linked to the Titanic, we would hope that that, you know, one catastrophe would
02:24have been enough. There's been thousands of ships built out of Arnhem Wharf, and we hope that will
02:28continue going forward. It's massive for the manufacturing and heavy industry sector, and the
02:34shipbuilding sector in Northern Ireland and the wider UK. What's about though, the underlying
02:40issues, perhaps that led to this deal being needed in the first place? Is there actually
02:45going to be enough work in shipbuilding to sustain this industry?
02:53Well, again, speaking to Navantia, they have a strategy, a long term strategy for the yards
03:00going forward. This is not by any stretch of the imagination, a short term fix. What we asked for
03:07one of our key demands at the start of this was to have a bona fide shipbuilder take over the yard.
03:14And that appears what we have, we have succeeded in achieving. So their long term strategy is to
03:23look at defence, the FSS contract, which has already been agreed, ship repair, as well as
03:30another strand to their long term strategy and renewables as well. So they have a plan in place,
03:37not just for today or tomorrow, but for years to come.