The United States Navy has appropriated $34 million for six new workforce initiatives at Bath Iron Works (BIW) as part of the Fiscal Year 2023 Defense Appropriations bill.
This inclusion came at the request of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) as part of a larger effort to improve the infrastructure at shipyards responsible for building the Navy’s destroyers.
“The crews of the Bath-built DDG-51 destroyers defending commercial shipping in the Red Sea today serve as vivid reminders of how important it is that the United States maintain a robust shipbuilding capability to support the U.S. Navy,” Sen. Collins said in a statement released Tuesday.
“These workforce investments are aimed at strengthening the backbone of BIW,” Collins said. “which is the thousands of dedicated workers who build the world’s most capable combat surface ships.”
According to Collins’ press release, the funding will go to a range of initiatives at BIW, such as the introduction of on-the-job training, as well as housing, childcare, and free bus services for employees.
More specifically, the $34 million is expected to fund six projects, including:
- “Increasing the number of workers trained at BIW apprentice academies;”
- “Providing new workers on-the-job training at the shipyard to reduce the training timeline from five years to three years;”
- “Funding for 85 new housing units for BIW workers closer to the shipyard;”
- “150 additional year-round childcare slots for BIW workers;”
- “Free bus services for BIW employees in the Bath and Brunswick areas;”
- “Other retention improvement activities.”
It is not immediately clear what percentage of the total funding will ultimately go toward each of these six initiatives.
Click Here to Read Sen. Collins’ Full Press Release
In August of 2023, the U.S. Navy awarded BIW a contract for the construction of three DDG 51 class ships, with one ship set to be completed in fiscal year (FY) 2023, another in FY 2024, and the third in FY 2026, according to the United States Department of Defense.
At the time the contract was awarded, there were six DDG 51 destroyers already in production at BIW.
Last month, pro-Palestine protestors gathered outside BIW demanding that the shipyard “stop arming Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” referring to the indirect involvement of vessels constructed at the shipyard in the war between Israel and Hamas.
“BIW makes deadly warships that act as delivery systems for nuclear weapons that serve US military-imperialist interests, and they’re made right here in New England,” the protest’s event page read. “We must not allow the genocidal machine to continue.”
A counter-protestor and Vietnam veteran attended the event and held a sign reading “Long live Israel,” and “Push Hamas into the Sea!!! Build more Navy ships to protect Israel.”
“Well it’s strange that all these people down here for this protest against Israel didn’t say as word, were quiet as a mouse, when Hamas — Palestinian Hamas — went into Israel and slaughtered 1200 people,” the pro-Israel counter-protestor told the Maine Wire.
According to a report published in 2022, BIW generated $8.4 billion worth of economic activity in Maine from 2017-202, creating $1.8 billion of economic output in 2021 alone.
BIW is also responsible for 17 percent of Maine’s production gross domestic product (GDP) each year and accounts for 12 percent of the state’s manufacturing workforce.
In 2021, BIW supported 6,500 on-site jobs, and more than 11,000 jobs statewide when accounting for multiplier effects.
Between 2017 and 2021, BIW generated an average of $44 million a year in state and local tax revenue, totaling more than $220 million during this five-year period.
Go get your picture taken at BIW Susan. It is what you do best.
Note the corporate/union welfare. “as well as housing, childcare, and free bus services for employees.”
I’m old enough to remember when a government contractor had to demonstrate the capacity to fulfill a contract. Funding for babysitting was never part of the equation.