Collins asks Navy to exempt Kittery shipyard employees from job reductions

File photo / William Hall Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, pictured here from the Piscataqua River, employs 8,000 people.

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Citing national security risks, U.S. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., have urged the U.S. Navy to block potential staffing reductions at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard by exempting workers from the Trump administration’s deferred resignation program for federal employees.

In a Feb. 11 letter to acting Secretary of the Navy Terrence G. Emmert, the senators warned that any reduction in staffing at the Kittery-based facility would “jeopardize our nation’s security by increasing submarine maintenance timelines,” and called shipyard workers, “critical members of our defense industrial base.”

Adding that, “the People’s Republic of China is rapidly expanding its nuclear weapons programs,” Collins and Shaheen stated, “the role that our own submarines play in the survivability of our nuclear triad cannot be overstated.

“Our shipyards cannot afford to reduce their workforces. In fact, [the shipyard] needs to hire 550 workers annually just to meet Navy demand for the foreseeable future.”

The senators went on to ask Emmert to work with the federal Office of Personnel Management to provide an exception for employees not only at the shipyard but also for, “other parts of the defense industrial base.”

The letter was dated Feb. 11, the day before the Trump administration ended the signup period for workers to accept the deferred resignation program.

Nationwide, unions representing 800,000 workers had sued to halt the program and on Feb. 6, a federal judge agreed to do so, until Feb. 12, when the hold was lifted.

Details are not yet available on how many, if any, shipyard workers accepted the buyout, or if the senators’ requested exemption, if enacted, could be used to rescind offers to workers who had agreed to early retirement.

Mainebiz reached out to Collins's office and to the Metal Trades Council, which is the largest union at the shipyard, but did not receive callbacks.

Collins and Shaheen stated in the letter that the shipyard employs close to 8,000 civilians, and creates “more than $1.5 billion in annual economic impact in surrounding communities.”

Collins is chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Shaheen is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and co-chair of the U.S. Senate Navy Caucus.