“This will damage their reputation” - Richard Leonard speaks at P&O protest at Clyde Marine Recruitment in Glasgow

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union held a protest outside the Clyde Marine Recruitment offices on Govan Road this morning, as the firm are reportedly involved in hiring staff to replace sacked P&O staff.

Speaking ahead of today’s protest, the union general secretary Mike Lynch said: "We are making it clear that there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide for those who have been complicit in the P&O jobs massacre.

"We will keep the pressure on at every opportunity until we get justice for the P&O workers.

"We look forward to another good turnout tomorrow after the weekends protests and greatly appreciate the remarkable solidarity from our trade union colleagues in this dispute.

"There will be more protests, more campaigning and more political pressure this week as we ratchet up the fight and harness the public anger at the jobs carve up on our ferries."

MSP Richard Leonard was at the protest and spoke to GlasgowWorld, saying: “Clyde Marine Recruitment have got themselves dragged into the P&O sacking of workers as they have been asked to try and recruit those low wage workers to try and take the jobs of the seafarers who have been dismissed.

“We are here today to get a message to Clyde Marine Recruitment that they should withdraw from that contract - that they should have nothing to do with it, that this will damage their reputation. They spent 40 years building up their reputation, in the space of 40 minutes, it could be destroyed.

“The goal here is to get those 800 seafarers employed by P&O reinstated. That’s the right thing to do. Legally that’s what ought to happen.

“By force of argument that needs to happen and if it doesn’t then both governments - the Scottish Government and the UK Government - need to say to P&O we are going to take these contracts off you and we’re going to make sure you play no part in the freeport enterprise which is being established across the UK at the moment. There needs to be tough talking, but there needs to be tough action as well.”

A member of the trade union council, Thomas Morrison added: “We’re here to show solidarity to RMT and the members that have been sacked. I think the movement is confident (that the staff will be) reinstated, it’s a case of putting pressure on the Tories as well as they’re in cahoots with the employer. So the aim is to put pressure on the employers and the Tory government.”

Clyde Marine Recruitment said it had no prior knowledge about the mass P&O sacking on Thursday 17 March.

Government reaction to P&O sackings

Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “I’m deeply concerned at P&O announcement - due to the importance to Scotland of the Cairnryan/Larne route obviously, but also the impact on 100s of workers. Fire & rehire is an appalling practice & offends the basic principle of fair work. @scotgov will be seeking urgent talks”

The Prime Minister backed Transport Secretary Grant Shapps’ call for P&O Ferries’ chief executive Peter Hebblethwaite to quit over the sacking of the 800 workers without notice

The Scottish Parliament confirmed that Mr Hebblethwaite would appear before the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee on Tuesday.

What happened to P&O staff?

P&O Ferries cancelled all of its services on 17 March as it announced a major restructuring of its operations.

It said its business was no longer “viable” and that it therefore needed to fire 800 seafarers - announcing the move to shocked staff via Zoom.

The company pointed to a £105 million loss it made in 2020 as a major factor in its decision to make the sackings - although the loss was covered by its owner DP World.