Workers at the BiFab engineering yard on Lewis are facing redundancy with the possible closure of the base within months, union leaders warned last night.
The Arnish yard and another in Fife have both been earmarked for closure, it was claimed, which would mean the loss of 1,400 jobs across both sites.
It is understood that trade union bosses were advised of the proposals to issue redundancy notices to the core workforce yesterday afternoon.
And union leaders say 260 jobs are to go by early summer, with the possible closure of the yards completely by the end of June.
The warning about the Lewis site comes as a major blow to the island, after a campaign to save it reached the top of Scotland’s political food chain last year.
Unite’s regional officer, Bob McGregor, said: “So much has been done to save these yards until now.
“The workers there have fought for their future and it is difficult to believe that it can now be snatched away from them.
“The closures of these yards will turn these areas into an industrial graveyard, the prospect fills us with dismay.”
Bifab could not be reached for comment last night, but Minister for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, Keith Brown, said the government would fight to ensure the firm’s survival.
He said: “We stand ready to provide support through our Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (Pace) initiative.
“By providing skills development and employability support, Pace aims to minimise the time individuals affected by redundancy are out of work.
“Scottish Ministers have offered support to BiFab to allow work to continue on the contracts for the Beatrice offshore wind farm development through a loan facility, and have been fully focussed and working intensively to secure a long-term future for the company.
“Ministers recognise that more work remains to be done to secure the long-term future of the company, and are fully committed to offering support where possible to attract long term investment in this vital sector of the Scottish supply chain and economy.”
Last November, the BiFab yards were only narrowly spared the axe following a payment dispute with a major sub-subcontractor on the Beatrice wind farm contract for the Cromarty Firth.
The workers at BiFab occupied the yards and called for Scottish Government intervention to save the company from going into administration.
Many employees had agreed to work without pay in the hope of allowing a rescue deal to be put in place.
Mr Brown and the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, eventually managed to broker a deal involving all the major contractors to keep the yards open.
However, union bosses say the imminent end of the Beatrice contract means that BiFab is running out of work.
Bob McGregor, of Unite, pleaded for another last-ditch bid to secure the sites.
He added: “We can’t say this is a total shock because work at the yard has been running down for weeks now.
“However all the interested parties, the company, the contractors, the unions and the Scottish Government must surely look to have an eleventh hour intervention which can do something to save these jobs.”