About half a dozen Williamstown shipbuilders have packed up their families and gone to Canada to work.
Mark Arneill decided to stay here and has been out of work for one and a half years – ever since he was laid off from BAE Systems, where he worked nearly 30 years.
He still hopes that one day work there will start up again.
That dream seemed further away after the federal government last week announced its $89billion naval shipbuilding plan, including $1.3billion to upgrade shipyards in South Australia and Western Australia.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the shipbuilding workforce was expected to grow to about 5200 workers by the mid-to-late 2020s – with almost all of those jobs going to South Australia – and that some foreign workers would be “essential”.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union plans to hold a rally in Williamstown to urge the government to include the dormant Williamstown shipyard in future work.
Former boilermaker-turned-union organiser Leon White said that with the flick of a switch, the shipyard could be back in manufacturing.
“Malcolm Turnbull said we might need to start looking at getting some shipbuilders from overseas and that’s a kick in the guts for us when there’s a perfectly good shipyard sitting here, mothballed,” Mr White said.
Mr White, who was laid off from the Williamstown yard when work dried up between government contracts, said he wouldn’t mind if the jobs went to his former workmates who had gone to Canada to stay in shipbuilding.
Mr Arneill, who lives in Ardeer, lamented that he had spent his whole life acquiring skills that were “no longer viable in Victoria”.
“I worked here for 27 years,” he said, standing outside the Williamstown yard where only white-collar workers remain.
“As an 18-year-old kid, I started here and my father was here before me and my son came here while I was.
“I was laid off a year and a half ago and I’m struggling to find work at the moment.
“I’ve got lots of skills but nowhere in Victoria I can use them.
“Thirty years in a job – worked my way up, and then, bang, suddenly you’re on the dole.”
