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March 14, 2011

BIW lays off another 84 people

By The Mainebiz News Staff

Bath Iron Works is laying off another 84 workers, nearly two weeks after laying off 130 people.

The company announced Friday it will lay off 74 union workers on the DDG-51 destroyer program and 10 nonunion, salary positions in less than two weeks, according to the Sun Journal. Spokesman Jim DeMartini said the layoffs are due to "peaks and valleys" in the shipyard's workload, and that BIW was hoping to shift some workers to other parts of the company. Last month, BIW announced 130 union workers in the DDG-51 program would be laid off, effective March 2. Both rounds are related to the end of production work for the last DDG-51 destroyer BIW is building, which is slated for christening in May.

The DDG-51 program, the shipyard's mainstay, was originally scheduled to end but the Department of Defense in 2009 decided to restart the program. BIW has been selected to build one of two ships in the restarted line and is currently negotiating with the Navy for a contract.

In January, BIW laid off 130 designers and engineers from the new DDG-1000 destroyer class as design work on the first of the three ships ended. The Navy has awarded BIW some funding for advance work for the second and third ships in the line, and negotiations between BIW and the Navy for the full contracts are ongoing.

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