Talking to Bombardier workers on their way down to London on Wednesday, and then listening to the evidence and debate at the Transport Select Committee later that morning, it became clear that there is a glaring gap between the expectations of the workforce versus the politicians.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond talked up Bombardier’s past successes – not-so-subtly implying that it should not find itself having to consider completely shutting down because of one lost contract – while admitting he does have the power to rip up the agreement and start again. He said he will not do this, because it will mean years of delays on the Thameslink contract, with knock-on effects because of the train sets that would not be available for cascade to the North West and the GWML – and then said electrification in those areas would be seriously under threat for the same reason.
The workforce, meanwhile, see only betrayal, and a Government that has turned its back on them. They say the tender decision was based on incredibly narrow and short-sighted criteria that completely ignored the long-term impact on UK jobs, taxes, skills and unemployment – and the Government hits back that Bombardier has known exactly what the terms of the tender were for three years, and did not complain until it lost.
The political pressure on Hammond and the Government is immense, but he showed no more signs this week than he has since June of seriously considering backing down. He implied repeatedly that Siemens, for various reasons, put in a significantly better bid than Bombardier – particularly on the parts relating to long-term maintenance and financing – and rejected the idea that his decision would mean the end of UK train building. His optimistic view that he wants to see multiple UK-based train builders competing against each other on future tenders ignores the huge impact the decision he has made is already having on jobs and lives – but there is little he seems prepared or able to do to turn the clock back.
The unions will continue their campaign to the very end, as will Derby as a whole, but the signs coming out of Bombardier’s review of its UK operations look very ominous.
