Workers at the historic railway depot in Springburn,
Glasgow, are battling against its closure, with the loss of nearly 200 highly
skilled jobs and 160 years of railway history.
The RMT and Unite unions have launched the Rally Roon the
Caley campaign, and marched to the
Scottish parliament when the issue was being debated last week. Public support
is widespread, but time is short to save this depot, which carries out service,
maintenance, repairs, overhaul and upgrades for the entire Scotrail fleet.
The unions have rightly condemned this as an act of
industrial vandalism. In a society suffering a desperate shortage of skilled
jobs and apprenticeships, with a rail service that provokes public uproar for its inefficiency, it's outrageous
that the profiteers are allowed to threaten a railway depot that has been a
feature of life for 160 years. It's another instalment in the horror story of
rail privatisation, and the fragmentation that goes with it.
Springburn was historically the world hub of the railway
industry. Up until 1995, the Caley was part of nationalised British Rail, a
major part of BREL (British Rail Engineering Ltd). Last August, Knorr-Bremse
Rail Services sold it to Gemini Rail Services. Five months later, on 17
January, Gemini declared a 45-day consultation period for its closure,
apparently with plans to centralise their operations in the south of England.
This is a classic example of vital services and
infrastructure, and people's livelihoods, being sacrificed on the altar of
profit, as one gang of profiteers passes it on to another. It's also a classic
case for public ownership, for the Scottish government to go beyond worthy
words of condemnation and sympathy.
In response to claims by Gemini that the St Rollox depot is
unsuitable and unprofitable, the unions have demanded on-site electrification
and a link to the Glasgow/Edinburgh line. They have highlighted that the cost
of this modernisation would be less than £1million, whilst the Scottish
government has been allocated £4.8billion for railway infrastructure by
Westminster.
The Scottish government should step in, take the depot into
public ownership – as they did with Prestwick airport – and integrate it with a
publicly owned Scottish railway service, rather than let an array of capitalist
vultures rip up a service for profit, particularly given the urgency of expanding
public transport as one concrete measure against environmental pollution and
climate chaos.
Time is running out. The unions should consider all options,
including a workers’ and community occupation of the depot to prevent asset
stripping, whilst escalating the pressure on the Scottish government to ‘stand up
for Scotland’, as they pledged to do in past election campaigns.
