Electric Boat details hiring plans to support submarine building

GENERAL DYNAMICS ELECTRIC BOAT President Jeffrey S. Geiger spoke at a legislative update at the Crowne Plaza Providence Warwick on Monday, where he discussed the company's growth plans. / PBN PHOTO/MARY MACDONALD
GENERAL DYNAMICS ELECTRIC BOAT President Jeffrey S. Geiger spoke at a legislative update at the Crowne Plaza Providence Warwick on Monday, where he discussed the company's growth plans. / PBN PHOTO/MARY MACDONALD

WARWICK – General Dynamics Electric Boat this year plans to hire at least 2,000 people to build U.S. Navy-commissioned submarines, including 650 more at Quonset Point.

This is the initial phase of a significant ramp-up in recruitment over the next several years that its president said will be a challenge.

In a public overview of its business outlook, President Jeffrey S. Geiger, who spoke at a legislative update at the Crowne Plaza Providence Warwick, said the defense contractor had confidence that its pipeline for training and attracting new workers would result in the needed hires, including in coming years when it takes on a much larger class of submarine.

To meet this projected demand, Electric Boat will need to increase its combined workforce in Connecticut and Rhode Island from 14,500 this year to 18,000 by the mid-2030s.

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Part of its recruitment pipeline is a strengthened investment in workforce training by the state of Rhode Island, which over the past 18 months has created several school-to-work programs aimed at high school students, including with specific training geared to jobs at Electric Boat.

When asked whether he had confidence the defense manufacturer would find enough workers with the requisite skills, Geiger told reporters: “It’s a real challenge.”

In addition to having the required training for the advanced manufacturing jobs, candidates have to have a strong work ethic, he said. They also have to pass a required drug test. In 2016, 8 percent of the candidates failed the drug test, he said.

“But we’ve had a successful year this past year, both in Rhode Island and Connecticut, working with the state on a series of programs that are being executed either in the continuing-technical education areas, and in the community colleges, to develop the pipelines that will produce skilled employees who we can start into our internal programs.”

Rhode Island has created a workforce development partnership with Electric Boat, called Pipelines to Manufacturing Careers in Ship Building, which includes workplace specific training through the New England Institute of Technology and the Community College of Rhode Island. The effort received $370,000 in state and federal funds in its initial year.
On Friday, the state’s Department of Labor and Training authorized another $3.6 million to train 500 more people for Electric Boat jobs over the next five years, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said Monday. The grant is a part of the state’s Real Jobs Rhode Island program, aimed at bolstering manufacturing jobs.

“These are good jobs, but don’t require a college degree,” Raimondo said.
Electric Boat now employs 3,353 manufacturing workers at its facilities at Quonset in North Kingstown, about the same number as a year ago.

The addition of a net 300 employees in 2016, discussed by Geiger a year ago at the public overview, didn’t materialize, he said. But that was due to material-related problems, not because of any problem in finding qualified workers, he said.

“Basically we have stabilized. Quite frankly, what we ran into was problems with our supply base. Incoming supply materials to support the construction activity was not adequately supported by our suppliers,” he said.

The supply issues have been resolved, he said, following the legislative update.

With the workload expected in coming years, the Quonset-based workforce is expected to grow to more than 5,000 people within the next three to four years.

The defense contractor needs to hire more workers to meet continued production demand for the Virginia class of submarines, as well as for the upcoming Columbia class submarine, a much-larger craft that will replace the aging Ohio series, built between 1974 and 1997.

Once production of the Columbia submarine begins in earnest, Electric Boat will need to ramp up its hiring because the company will have the contracts for 80 percent of the submarines in that class, rather than the 50-50 share that it now splits with Newport News, Va.-based shipbuilders.

And because the submarine is so much larger, the volume of work for each of the Columbia submarines will be 2.5 times that of the Virginia class, he noted.

Fabrication of the hulls for the Columbia class has already begun at Quonset, in new facilities created for this purpose. By the end of 2017, more than 300 people will be working on the Columbia class, he said.

“This is very much alive and well and is being built in Rhode Island right now,” he said.

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