Islanders Put Jobs Ahead of Tanzania Deal Scruples

Nestling in the picturesque countryside for which the Isle of Wight is famous is the factory where Tanzania's new £28m military air traffic control system was made. The sprawling high technology factory is in Cowes, home to the annual yacht regatta. The collection of brick and prefab buildings is enclosed on one side by a six foot chain link fence topped by a foot of barbed wire, on another by a dense hedge. One hundred yards up the road sheep graze, and rabbits try to cross the busy main road.

The factory was run by BAe Systems when the contract was won and is now run by AMS, a joint venture between BAe and an Italian firm.

The deal to sell a struggling third world country an expensive air traffic control system has caused a political row. This week the Guardian revealed that Clare Short, development secretary, had withheld £10m in aid pending a review of the sale.

What did workers at the factory think about the controversy? Many were reluctant to give their views, and most who did said protecting jobs overrode any ethical concerns. None wished to be named. One, Peter, said: "Someone will always sell it to them. It's important to safeguard jobs here and keep our manufacturing base."

Peter, an employee for over 20 years, accepted there were "qualms about selling defence equipment to third world countries", but recently GKN Westland, based on the island, laid off 650 workers, making such doubts a luxury and reinforcing to the islanders how precarious the manufacturing base is.

Phil Rudd, chairman of the main trade union, Amicus, said: "We are pleased the government has granted the export licence which will help safeguard jobs."

Not everyone at the factory was comfortable with the contract. David said he almost quit his job: "I wanted to distance myself from gaining at the expense of one of the poorest countries. I was shocked to see a country that had received the debt relief it had squandering that on buying military air traffic equipment."

David wrote to the prime minister and to Clare Short demanding that the export licence be withheld. He concedes he was in a minority among the workforce, but believes the claim that 250 jobs were at risk was too high, pointing out there are only 100 manufacturing jobs at the site.

David is a committed Christian and supporter of the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign. His faith and politics led to sleepless nights as he wrestled with his conscience. "Practical considerations kept me here. The Isle of Wight's employment prospects are limited. I have to stay and support my three children. It's a constraint."

The GKN redundancies left AMS as the largest private employer on the island, which council leaders say is one of the poorest areas in southern England.

Over the past 30 years, its manufacturing base, once dominated by the now withered shipbuilding industry, has gone into decline with little replacing it.

"The Isle of Wight has stood still, probably gone back since the 1950s," said local businessman Andrew Cassell. He is a director of sailmakers Ratney and Lapthorn, which employs eight people and has been on the island since 1790.

The Isle of Wight is not just geographically isolated, figures show it is economically isolated too. This week an 8,000 signature petition was handed in at Downing Street protesting at the government dishing out a raw deal to the island.

Harry Rees, a councillor who spearheads economic development efforts, said the chief annoyance is that for spending purposes the island is lumped together with the far more affluent Hampshire. This means it is robbed of £240m of funds from government and the European Union over seven years. "We have picturesque poverty", he said.

The mainland ferry is expensive, making labour mobility poor. The young are leaving the island for work and the population is disproportionately old.

The AMS jobs are well paid, £400 a week, compared to an island average of £270, well behind the national average. Tourism, worth over £300m, is seasonal, the jobs mainly low paying.

In the marinas here, scores of yachts are being ready to go back to sea, and preparations are well under way for Cowes Week in August.

"Cowes week gives a false impression of the town," said Mr Rees. Methodist minister Briant Smith agreed: "The Isle of Wight has a lot of wealth that does not belong to the islanders."

He is troubled about the morality of the deal, but understands why, given the island's perilous economic state, people hold onto whatever they can get. "We need to express concern about the whole process, and not afterwards pillory the workers on the island," he said.