As the district officer for the AEEU engineering union in Plymouth, Bill Goffin was one of those fighting the privatisation in the 1980s.

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The regional secretary of the AEEU said the union would work "positively" with the task force while also seeking to minimise the number of redundancies.

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Mr Morgan complained that the full weight of the government had swung behind his rival, who he said had more to lose from the AEEU vote.

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Danny Carrigan, the Scottish Regional Secretary of the engineering union, the AEEU, said he was pleased that Mr Blair had intervened and he was hopeful it would help.

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