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Shipbuilder Warns of Layoffs if Biden Doesn’t Buy More Destroyers

Rogue Valley

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7/9/21
BATH, MAINE—Bath Iron Works said it might cut 2,500 workers if the Biden administration does not place a multiyear order for more Arleigh Burke-class destroyers within the next two years. That warning was given to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks when she met with General Dynamics executives during a visit to the shipyard on Wednesday. The company is urging the Pentagon to place an order for at least 15 ships beginning in 2023 so that Bath Iron Works can retain enough seasoned workers to build the Navy’s next class of destroyer. Executives fear a decline in orders will create a gap between the current class of destroyers [Arleigh Burke] and the new class of ships [DDG-] that is at least a decade away. Ordering at least three destroyers per year is “critical to sustain [the] industrial base and bring needed capability to the fleet,” read one of the briefing slides presented to a reporter during Hicks’ visit. Bath Iron Works and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Mississippi each build Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. The orders are roughly split evenly between the two shipyards. But Bath has routinely experienced setbacks, putting it more than six months behind schedule building the ships. Right now, there are six Arleigh Burke destroyers in Bath, and one Zumwalt-class destroyer.

In its fiscal 2022 budget request sent to Congress in May, the Navy asked lawmakers to approve a single destroyer, one fewer than planned a year earlier. A House panel has already added the ship back into the budget and other panels are expected to follow suit. Since 2018, the shipyard has been on a hiring spree, hiring 4,000 workers as it attempts to get back on schedule and meet the Navy’s ship demand. It’s hired 1,300 workers already this year and plans to hire a total of 2,000 employees in 2021. But without an order for more destroyers soon, the shipyard says it would have to cut its workforce by about 2,500. Executives predict some of those would come through attrition, as about 1,000 of its most seasoned shipbuilders are expected to retire. The remaining cuts would be through layoffs. The Biden administration has put an emphasis on American job creation. In May, when the Pentagon sent its fiscal 2022 budget request to Congress, Hicks said that spending plan would focus “investment in American manufacturing and innovation, especially in underrepresented populations and small businesses. Doing so means that we will not only build back better, but bolster America's national security industrial base.”


Not an ultimatum, but a warning that what is in the Pentagons "orders-pipeline" is not enough to retain the current shipbuilding workforce at Bath.
 




Not an ultimatum, but a warning that what is in the Pentagons "orders-pipeline" is not enough to retain the current shipbuilding workforce at Bath.

It would be great if the United States had more destroyers built (to keep people employed) and gifted them to Taiwan in case the Chinese Emperor orders an attack on that island.
 
Academic how many they have / build . The US never wins a battle / conflict .

Look how the 'enemy ' sent all the aircraft carriers scuttling and limping .What a debacle that was .

And the likelihood is that both the Chinese and Russians would blow 'destroyers ' out of the water with DEW .

Why use tin ships paddling through waterways when you can control any location by satellite ?

For the moment only ocean underwater tubs which are location disguised are going to produce results .And not the results which will benefit humanity .
 
Let the ship builders go on welfare and food stamps


free market... I wonder if we could find cheaper shipbuilding in other countries...
 
We don't need more destroyers. We do need infrastructure that would require many times more than 2,500. Why build needless ships to keep people employed when we can build needed and more useful infrastructure and hire many times more people?
 
It would be great if the United States had more destroyers built (to keep people employed) and gifted them to Taiwan in case the Chinese Emperor orders an attack on that island.

So you want us to build destroyers for Taiwan with American taxpayer dollars to keep the poor MIC shipbuilding companies happy.
 
Would this be basically a government works project, aka, socialism?

Not really as it's for defence which I'm fairly sure most think is something the government should do.
This is the same old story that happens everywhere in the world where a ship building company will shout about lay-offs, it also happened in the UK.

The companies need to realize that the country can't always be building ships as if it's the middle of a war and the need for new ships will naturally decrease during peacetime.
 
Academic how many they have / build . The US never wins a battle / conflict .

Look how the 'enemy ' sent all the aircraft carriers scuttling and limping .What a debacle that was .

And the likelihood is that both the Chinese and Russians would blow 'destroyers ' out of the water with DEW .

Why use tin ships paddling through waterways when you can control any location by satellite ?

For the moment only ocean underwater tubs which are location disguised are going to produce results .And not the results which will benefit humanity .
Hey Monica when are you going to get back to me regarding your insipid claim that vaccinated "international pilots" are dying, and that airlines are not flying vaccinated passengers?
 
Not really as it's for defence which I'm fairly sure most think is something the government should do.
This is the same old story that happens everywhere in the world where a ship building company will shout about lay-offs, it also happened in the UK.

The companies need to realize that the country can't always be building ships as if it's the middle of a war and the need for new ships will naturally decrease during peacetime.


One issue the US has is that it’s civilian ship building industry is not very large anymore, with much of it going to Japan, South Korea and China. That would maintain the yards in peacetime allowing for conversion to military during wartime
 
free market... I wonder if we could find cheaper shipbuilding in other countries...

No question about it. Contracts like these aren't called sweetheart deals for nothing.
 
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Would this be basically a government works project, aka, socialism?
Like virtually everything government does, it's nothing but a big waste of resources. In principle, it's no different than Stalin having thousands of people dig canals by hand through mountains of granite with nothing but pickaxes, shovels, and wheel barrels.

But it's different, in that Stalin used slave labor, while the US government pays handsomely. The end result is pretty much the same - a big waste of time and resources that makes the whole world poorer and worse off.
 
Big whoop.

Layoffs have always been a part of the job in the ship building trades.

Nothing to see here folks.
Also, most people who work in shipyards have trade skills that travel well. When I was an apprentice Ironworker and there wasn't much work in heavy construction my rigging skills scored me a pretty good job in the shipyard.
Steel fitters, riggers, welders, plumbers, electricians, instrument tech's, those people will only be out of work as long as they want to be.
 
We don't need more destroyers.

Of course we don't need more destroyers. But what gets produced under government is decided by politics not the market, and that in a nutshell is the problem. So who has more political pull, the American people, or lobbyists for defense contractors?

Remember this is what people like you want. You want this to be decided by politics and then you complain when the politically powerful get their way.
 
Academic how many they have / build . The US never wins a battle / conflict .

Look how the 'enemy ' sent all the aircraft carriers scuttling and limping .What a debacle that was .

And the likelihood is that both the Chinese and Russians would blow 'destroyers ' out of the water with DEW .

Why use tin ships paddling through waterways when you can control any location by satellite ?

For the moment only ocean underwater tubs which are location disguised are going to produce results .And not the results which will benefit humanity .

Where do you get this insane idea that there are satellite based weapons or anti-ship directed energy weapons currently deployed?
 
One issue the US has is that it’s civilian ship building industry is not very large anymore, with much of it going to Japan, South Korea and China. That would maintain the yards in peacetime allowing for conversion to military during wartime

Cool. Then nationalize them. Force them to operate at cost rather than for profit.
 
Shipyards can't convert back to military projects at the drop of a hat.

Bath is just letting the Govt. know that it can't sustain the current "military projects" workforce on Govt. maybe's.

Either you do want more warships from us or you don't. Let us know in a timely fashion.
 
Shipyards can't convert back to military projects at the drop of a hat.

Bath is just letting the Govt. know that it can't sustain the current "military projects" workforce on Govt. maybe's.

Either you do want more warships from us or you don't. Let us know in a timely fashion.

It's Bath Iron Works obligation to find contracts if it wants to keep it's employees working, not the Fed's

Sucking off the government is a hard way to go.

My brother in law just retired from BIW this year and he's had at least 4-5 layoffs in his 30 years there.
 
Also, most people who work in shipyards have trade skills that travel well. When I was an apprentice Ironworker and there wasn't much work in heavy construction my rigging skills scored me a pretty good job in the shipyard.
Steel fitters, riggers, welders, plumbers, electricians, instrument tech's, those people will only be out of work as long as they want to be.

But if they leave, how will we get them back when we need more ships built?

For the last 40 years, the number of skilled ship workers in the US has decreased dramatically. And while many can move to other industries, what then when you need them again?

You either hire and train new workers, which greatly decreases their skills and speed until they get the experience again. Or you pay a premium to lure back the ones you laid of previously.

In case nobody has noticed, we hardly build any ships anymore. Civilian or military. There was a time we were the largest ship building nation on the planet. Now we make almost nothing.

In 2020, the world produced over 54 million tons of cargo ships. The US, just 74,000 tons. Just last year the DoT gave the Philly Shipyard a contract for 4 new government cargo vessels, otherwise that facility was going to close. They had completed their fourth 50,000 ton civilian cargo vessel, but had no orders for any others. And it will likely be repeated in another 2 years as they still have no newer contracts, with most companies buying cheaper ships in Asia.

And when these close, they normally do not remain shipyards for long. After the Sun Shipyard in Pennsylvania closed, it was leased a few times, then cut up and sold. Half is now a yard for holding inbound freight, they rest is a casino. So even if we needed it in the future, it is gone and will never return. Mare Island, Long Beach, San Francisco, most of our old shipyards are now gone, and will never return. How much will it cost us to rebuild those if we ever need them again?
 
Where do you get this insane idea that there are satellite based weapons or anti-ship directed energy weapons currently deployed?

Nothing insane about it. We most certainly do have satellite weapons pointed both at the earth and away from it.
 
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