Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2016
The First Minister will be aware of the announcement by ClydeUnion Pumps, which is part of the SPX group and is based in my constituency, that consultations have begun with unions on the prospect of the company making 114 workers redundant. If that comes to pass, it will mean that more than one third of the workforce has gone in the past 12 months, after the loss of 90 jobs last year.
Given the company’s importance to my constituency—for example, my mother and my brother worked in it—and the fact that, starting as Weir Pumps, the plant has stood on Newlands Road since 1886, will the First Minister tell me what the Scottish Government can do to help the workers who are threatened with redundancy and to help the company through the temporary downturn in the oil and gas industry?