2 ~ Friday. August 3, 1990 - North Snore

Versatile layotts slamme:

ews

Union boss claims shipyard no longer
capable of building large ships

NORTH VANCOUVER-based Versatile
Inc. (VPSI) has been *‘caught with ity pants down

Pacific: Shipyards
“and is

no Jonger in a position to build major ocean-going vessels,
the president of the Vancouver and District Labor Council

has charged.

John Fitzpatrick, the former
president of the Marine Workers

and) Boilermakers’ Industrial
Union, made the comment atter
the B.C. Ferry Corp. (BCFC)
made public last Friday the
tendered bids it received for the
contract to build two **S" class
superferries.

Versatile was the lone Canadian
shipyard to submit a bid, and the
North Vancouver-based company
only bid on one of the two 470-
vehicle, 2,000-passenger vessels.

Versatile’s bid of $119,129,000
for the second ferry was the se-
cond highest’ received for that
vessel.

Company boss Peter Quinn said
in an Aug. I News story that Ver-
satile was bidding on behalf of
B.C. and Canada against the
heavily subsidized = shipbuilding
operations around the world whea
it tendered its bid.

The bid was made, Quinn said,
so that the superferries contract
would not go to off-shore ship-
yards, ‘*by default.”

He also said that Versatile only
bid on the second vessel because it
could not meet the May 1992
delivery date set for the first
superferry.

But Fitzpatrick said the ‘‘S’*
class ferries are a new type of
vessel and that VPSI submitted a
high bid because the company
does not know how much such an
“S" type ferry would cost to
build.

After the federal government
cancelled the $680-million Polar
Class 8 icebreaker contract, which
had been awarded to VPSI, the
company began Jaying off some of
its employees and also closed its
North Vancouver drafting and
design office.

The result, Fitzpatrick said, is
that VPSI now does not have the
necessary expertise in designing
new ships.

“When you fook at Versatile
and their rationalization process
and the layoffs of the design peo-
ple, they’ve (VPSI) been caught
with their pants down,’’ said
Fitzpatrick. ‘‘That (design) team is
gone. Those two vessels (ferries)
would have been close to the
Polar 8 project.

“They (VPSI) probably bid
higher to protect themselves.”

But Quinn has said that Ver-
satile was very positive about its
bid, and confident that it had
tendered the best bid possible.”

A total of six shipyards bid on
either one or both of the ‘S”
class superferries, and because
VPSI was the lone Canadian bid-
der and only bid on the second
ferry, the first vessel will be built
outside of Canada.

But Fitzpatrick said both ferries
should be built in B.C.

“These vessels are well within
the capability of the West Coast
shipbuilding industry. They could
have been built in B.C. and they
should be built in B.C.," said
Fitzpatrick.

He added that the BCFC should
have built two “C"’ class ferries,
which are slightly smaller than the
“S" class vessels chosen by the
ferry corporation.

“Cc class vessels currently
operate on the Horseshoe Bay-
Nanaimo, Tsawwassen-Swartz Bay
and Nanaimo-Tsawwassen runs.

The two new ‘“'S*' class
superferries will be put into ser-
vice on the Tsawwassen-Swartz
Bay run.

“The ferry corporation would
have been better served if it built
two “C" class ferries. Fhe dit-

ference is only about 60 cars,”
said Fitzpatrick.
But

BCFC spokesman Erin

By Surj Rattan

News Reporter

Caldwell said the ferry corpora-
tion felt it needed to have the two
“S" class superferries to meet the
anticipated future demand that
will be placed on the ferry system.

Saturday,

FORMER union president John
Fitzpatrick

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