{"id":25848,"date":"2020-08-23T20:23:17","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T20:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2020\/08\/23\/shipbuilders-approve-3-year-pact-ending-monthslong-strike-at-bath-iron-works\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:14:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:14:03","slug":"shipbuilders-approve-3-year-pact-ending-monthslong-strike-at-bath-iron-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2020\/08\/23\/shipbuilders-approve-3-year-pact-ending-monthslong-strike-at-bath-iron-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Shipbuilders approve 3-year pact, ending monthslong strike at Bath Iron Works"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">BATH, Maine \u2014 A 63-day strike at Bath Iron Works \u2014 against the backdrop of a pandemic in an election year \u2014 came to an end Sunday with shipbuilders voting to return to their jobs producing warships for the United States Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the approval of a three-year contract, the 4,300 production workers represented by Machinists Local S6 will begin returning to work on Monday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After falling behind schedule, Bath Iron Works is eager to get caught up on production of destroyers as the U.S. Navy faces growing competition from China and Russia on the high seas. The General Dynamics subsidiary was already behind more than six months schedule before the strike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe are pleased to welcome back our valued manufacturing employees and get back to the important work of building ships on schedule for the U.S. Navy,\u201d Bath Iron Works said Sunday in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/industry\/2020\/06\/22\/production-workers-strike-against-major-us-navy-shipbuilder\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20174394634937.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Production workers strike against major US Navy shipbuilder<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">More than 4,000 workers went on strike against one of the U.S. Navy\u2019s largest shipbuilders on June 22.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Robert Martinez Jr., the Machinists\u2019 international president, cast the outcome on Sunday in historic terms, saying \u201cthis fight for dignity, justice and good Maine jobs will go down in the history books of the Machinists Union.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shipyard on the Kennebec River is one of the Navy\u2019s largest, and it\u2019s also a major employer in the state with with 6,800 workers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The stakes were high for both a company that feared being priced out of competition for Navy contracts and a highly skilled workforce that didn\u2019t want to give up ground to subcontractors. The test of wills ultimately ended with help from a federal mediator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shipbuilders represented by Machinists Local S6 got most of what they wanted when it came to work rules and maintaining the status quo for hiring of subcontractors, along with the previous proposal\u2019s annual pay raises of 3% for three years. The company got streamlined rules for hiring subcontracting, and a commitment to work together to get back on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of the pandemic, voting on the contract\u2019s approval \u2014 unanimously endorsed by the union negotiating committee \u2014 took place online and by telephone. Voting began Friday  and ending at noon Sunday. The vote was 87% in favor of the contract among those who voted, said Jay Waldeigh, a district union official. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow that we successfully protected our contract language with respect to subcontracting and seniority, we need to get back to work,\u201d said Local S6 President Chris Wiers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The shipyard builds the workhorse of the Navy fleet, destroyers that have the ability to provide air defense while simultaneously waging war against submarines and surface warships. Destroyers are also one of the few types of warships equipped to withstand a chemical attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Navy wants to increase the fleet\u2019s size \u2014 something President Donald Trump supports \u2014 and Bath Iron Works has said it needs to get back on schedule and lower costs to remain competitive on those contracts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Going into negotiations, the shipyard\u2019s production workers were already angry over past concessions that ultimately still failed to yield contracts on Coast Guard cutters and a new class of Navy frigates. The pandemic in which they were required to remain on the job only added to their feeling that the company didn\u2019t care about them \u2014 deemed essential by the Navy, the shipyard continued production despite a union request to shut down for two weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Workers were determined enough to strike, despite the loss of company-paid insurance as the coronavirus raged around the country. A giant inflatable, cigar-smoking pig outside the union hall took aim at corporate greed as workers fumed over the hiring of \u201cscab\u201d workers and political leaders got involved. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s a far cry from the way things were in the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The strike was the first in 20 years at Bath Iron Works. There was enough trust between management and the union in 1994 that a contract was approved allowing cross-training of workers under a formula called a \u201cHigh Performance Work Organization.\u201d Then-President Bill Clinton visited the shipyard to praise the collaboration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The company hopes that mediated discussions between the union and the company will help get the relationship back on track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But it\u2019s going to take time. Levi Benner, a shipfitter, said there are hard feelings because management routinely rejects workers\u2019 ideas for improvements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to restore trust. We know what we\u2019re doing. We\u2019ve been building ships for years and years. These guys are geeks. They know their graphs and pie charts, but they don\u2019t know how to build ships,\u201d he said Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, workers and the shipyard must learn how to work together if the company is to successfully compete for contracts against lower-cost competitors, said Loren Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBoth sides need to understand that their best chance for having a future is to get along with each other,\u201d he said. \u201cThe American landscape is littered with the debris of destroyed industries. Most of them made a good product but they\u2019re still gone.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i>This story has been corrected to show that the giant inflatable animal outside the union hall was a pig, not a rat.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 63-day strike at Bath Iron Works \u2014 against the backdrop of a pandemic in an election year \u2014 came to an end Sunday with shipbuilders voting to return to their jobs producing warships for the United States 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