AS polling day looms, RMT is maintaining its well-established position of only backing those candidates who back us.

Our political judgements are based on the principle of the union’s core priorities, and it is a policy that has served us well.

That position applies in Scotland as much as it does anywhere else, because of course often the rhetoric does not match up to the reality.

RMT was angry last year when the opportunity to bring the Scotrail operation into public ownership was missed and the same, tired old Westminster/business-driven agenda of privatisation was followed to the letter.

We said at the time that the decision was a betrayal of the Scottish people that will lumber us with profiteering and exploitation on rail services across the country for years to come, and we stand by that position today.

RMT judges Britain’s politicians by their actions and not by their words, and now we have another major privatisation on our hands in an industrial sector organised by our trade union.

Transport Scotland has taken the first legal step in retendering the £1 billion contract for Clyde and Hebrides ferry services (CHFS), effectively announcing the start of a competition between the private sector and CalMac for these lifeline public services.

CalMac workers and passengers learnt that the next operator, from October 2016, would be in position for up to eight years, although the winning bidder would not be announced until after the Scottish parliamentary elections, raising the possibility that CalMac will be privatised by the SNP.

SNP Minister for Transport and Islands Derek Mackay made clear in a press release that he supports this unnecessary, expensive and unpopular retender of Scottish ferry services.

“We are looking to award a contract that runs for a period up to eight years. This will make it more attractive to potential bidders by giving the operator more opportunity to deliver service improvements and efficiencies over the course of the contract.”

RMT and other CalMac unions are familiar with this government’s cynical manipulation of Scottish ferries policy, going back to the postponement of the original tender in autumn 2012, when the Scottish government guaranteed meaningful dialogue with the trade unions over employment and pension protections before the tendering process restarted in 2015.

The government consistently stalled in starting these talks, so much so that the first meeting only took place in December 2014, leaving precious little time for vital discussions over the employment and pension protections in the next CHFS contract.

This government also privatised Northern Isles ferry services in May 2012, handing Serco a contract that effectively invited the successful private bidder to attack members’ pensions. Only RMT’s threat of industrial action made Serco back off.

The invitation to tender for the Clyde and Hebrides contract will be published in June. The Pensions Working Group met on April 7 and the trade unions are meeting CalMac at the behest of RMT to discuss what protections for pensions and employment the current operator will put in the contract, should their bid be successful.

RMT has made it clear that it must receive a guarantee of no less favourable conditions in the non-negotiable specifications for the next CHFS contract which will be published as part of the invitation to tender.

If not, RMT members in CalMac will again be asked if they are prepared to take strike action to protect their jobs, pensions, pay and terms and conditions.

The union has exhausted all avenues in the face of the Scottish government and Transport Scotland’s dodging of discussions.

Mackay was appointed in November but only had an introductory meeting with transport unions in March.

That meeting was on transport in general and the minister has ignored RMT’s request for a one-to-one meeting on the CHFS tender.

In the coming months there will be no hiding place for the Scottish government if it does not take steps to ensure that bidders for the next CHFS contract are prevented from cutting jobs and pensions in order to fund a cut-price bid to run these services and receive over £1bn in public subsidy and investment, not to mention similar revenue levels from passenger and freight fares.

And what about the voice of local communities and their elected representatives in all this clamour from Transport Scotland to attract private bidders for CalMac?

The SNP tells us that the consultation carried out in 2011 on its Draft Ferries Plan is enough to inform the next CHFS contract and there will be no vote on it in Holyrood.

But what were people asked in 2011? Rather than the straightforward question of whether they supported privately run ferry services, the Scottish government asked about allowing “operators the flexibility to innovate and reduce costs where possible.”

Former Westminster Cabinet minister Brian Wilson has described the Scottish government’s plans for Clyde and Hebrides ferries as “a timetable for privatisation.”

RMT’s position is clear — while the SNP claims public support for this “greater flexibility,” CalMac employees know full well that their jobs, pensions, pay and terms and conditions are at risk from this skewing of the procurement process in favour of private bidders.

Ultimately, if the SNP cannot maintain existing protections in the tender documents for CalMac workers’ jobs and pensions, then RMT members would be fully justified in contemplating industrial action in response to this cynical betrayal of public-sector workers and the remote communities they serve.

And so RMT’s political and public campaigning for the future of the lifeline ferry services continues, regardless of who has their hands on the levers of political power, and we will be calling for support from the whole of the labour and trade union movement for the battles that lie ahead.

• Mick Cash is general secretary of RMT.