Angry workers protested outside the Melbourne office of Defence Minister Kevin Andrews on Friday, calling on the federal government to save Victoria’s only shipyard.
The protest came as Williamstown’s naval shipyard, BAE Systems, this month laid off many of the 80 employees whose redundancies had been announced in May.
BAE spokeswoman Kaye Noske said that since October the workforce at Williamstown had reduced by about 450 due to the dearth of shipbuilding work.
She said that, without new orders, all shipbuilding activities in Williamstown would cease next year.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) held a national day of action on Friday, with rallies in Melbourne, the Hunter region, Perth and Adelaide.
AMWU assistant state secretary Craig Kelly said the government could save the Williamstown shipyard by fast-tracking the build of a fourth air warfare destroyer.
BAE has already completed work on destroyer hull blocks for two ships.
Eight blocks are in production and will be completed by early next year.
BAE last month announced it would not tender for the $600 million construction of 21 Pacific patrol boats because the tender would not be awarded until 2017, leaving a gap in employment.
Mr Kelly said the Williamstown shipyard had the capability to immediately start work on another air warfare destroyer [AWD].
“It would be a seamless transition,” he said. “Unless a miraculous, sensible decision is made by the current government in the very near future, there’ll be no workers there.
“They are in the phase where, unless they get work now, they’re going to have to lay the workforce off.
“The solution would be, they need an AWD. The government could actually fast-track that, and that would actually save them.
“The navy’s saying they need an AWD, but there’s absolutely no indication that [the government is] going to try and save the yard by saying we can give you an AWD.”
Mr Andrews has said the government was “working to reduce the impact of Labor’s valley of death in the Australian naval shipbuilding industry”.
