The U.S. Navy’s top officer Adm. Mike Gilday will tour Bath Iron Works with Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King Monday afternoon.
The group is planning to meet with shipyard leaders to discuss production milestones and other achievements.
BIW, a General Dynamics subsidiary, is still recovering from significant production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a nine-weekslong workers strike last summer.
A month before workers went on strike, BIW President Dirk Lesko told the Portland Press Herald that the shipyard was already at least six months behind schedule.
By June, members of the Machinists Union Local S6 — the shipyard’s largest union representing 4,300 of a total 6,800 workers — went on strike. Union members returned to work Aug. 24 after finalizing a new contract with the company, but BIW still faced significant production losses during their absence.
In three months, the shipyard fell at least six more months behind schedule. After the strike, the company and Local S6 established the Joint Schedule Recovery Committee to get back on track.
Along with the strike, the shipyard also missed out on a handful of major shipbuilding contracts last year. In July, the company lost an $936 million contract to build an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer while in the midst of the union strike. The Navy awarded the project to BIW’s main competitor, Huntington Ingalls Industries in Mississippi.
BIW and Huntington Ingalls Industries are the only two shipyards that manufacture Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
