After difficult summer, BIW receives $146M Navy contract, inks union contract

File Photo / William Hall Bath Iron Works faces the potential loss of some workers if they refuse to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

Write a Comment

By William Hall

Three months after settling a bitter dispute and strike with its largest labor union, Bath Iron Works now appears to be sailing smoother waters.

The shipyard, a subsidiary of Virginia-based defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD), has received a contract modification from the Navy worth $146.1 million, according to a news release Tuesday.

The deal, a cost-plus-award-fee change to a previous agreement, calls for BIW to continue providing design, planning and material support services for maintenance and modernization of Arleigh Burke-class (DDG 51) guided missile destroyers.

The destroyers are 500-foot warships built by BIW, which launched the first one in 1989, and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Pascagoula, Miss.

Over 60 Burke-class destroyers are now in service. BIW has produced 37 of them, the most recent of which launched last year.

“Arleigh Burke-class destroyers are the workhorses of the Navy, defending our national security and protecting our interests around the globe,” U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in the release. “This funding will allow BIW’s engineers, designers, and planners to continue providing technical expertise to the Navy and strengthen Maine’s economy.”

Such an award is not unusual for BIW. The Navy made a similar contract modification for a nearly identical amount in December 2019. In June, the yard received a $132 million contract modification to upgrade infrastructure used to supply Burke destroyers.

That award came a week after members of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers Local S6 walked off their jobs at BIW for the first time since 2000.

The union, representing 4,300 of BIW’s 6,800 employees, called the strike in response to stalled negotiations of a new contract. The walkout turned more contentious when the union appeared to threaten violence against strike-breakers and BIW filed a federal complaint. Both sides ultimately agreed to a contract meeting union demands for seniority protection, and the strike ended in August after 62 days.

Last Friday, BIW announced it had reached a new collective bargaining agreement with another union, the Independent Guards Association.

The four-year contact, which went into effect this week, contains numerous improvements to the union members’ wages and benefits, BIW said in a statement. The union represents the yard’s security workers.