Bath Iron Works on Friday notified union authorities that it plans to lay off 19 electricians, effective Oct. 28, a BIW spokesman said.
The announcement comes a week after the company notified the Machinists Union Local S6 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America that it would lay off a dozen machinists, effective this coming Friday.
In September, the company announced it would lay off 30 workers and eliminate a total of 160 positions in its engineering and support organizations.
Communications manager Matt Wickenheiser said the layoffs are not connected to the loss of a bid in September to build 25 offshore patrol cutters for the Coast Guard.
Rather, the layoffs are because of the fluctuations in work inherent in shipbuilding, Wickenheiser said.
“We do hope we can find them positions in other parts of the company if possible,” Wickenheiser said of the electricians.
The Coast Guard project, the first segment of which was valued at $2.4 billion to build nine of the 25 cutters, would have secured work for years to come at the shipyard.
Coast Guard officials selected Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Florida, for the work.
General Dynamics’ Bath Iron Works is Maine’s fourth-largest employer, with more than 6,000 employees and a payroll of $360 million as of 2014. It does $64 million worth of business with 345 companies in nearly every county in the state. Local S6 represents about 3,400 of those workers.
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