Electric Boat announced last week that 2,400 employees, or about 20 percent of its work force, would be eliminated during the next year.
Jeff Swallow, an E.B. spokesperson at the company’s Quonset Point facility, said between 500 and 600 people would lose jobs there in a “worst-case” scenario over the course of 2006. The company currently employs about 2,000 people in Rhode Island.
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“We are always looking for ways to increase, not decrease,” Swallow said, by moving up some work scheduled for 2007 and 2008.
The company also is looking into “new ventures that could benefit Electric Boat and the Navy” that are yet to be determined, said Swallow.
There are several reasons behind the restructuring, including the elimination of the overhaul and repair business that will now be completed by public shipyards, per orders of the Navy, said Swallow.
Additionally, the Virginia class submarines have reached a “mature manufacturing phase and is doing well,” said Swallow. As a result, the design jobs are “fading away,” he said.
Currently, E.B. has contracts for 10 Virginia class ships. There is funding for six ships and one ship is completed, thus insuring production work for E.B. through 2011. The other three contracts are awaiting financial backing in upcoming fiscal years.
It is not yet known how the restructuring will affect the new, state-of-the-art sheet metal fabrication facility that was officially dedicated last month, said Swallow, anticipating that some jobs may be affected despite the coming work.
U.S. Sens. Lincoln Chafee and Jack Reed expressed a willingness to work with the Department of Labor to provide emergency assistance for the laid-off workers as they apply for unemployment benefits and worker-training programs.
“This is difficult news,” said Reed, a former Army captain, in a statement, “but I will continue to work with my colleagues to press the Navy to begin the process for a new submarine design and develop a more robust shipbuilding schedule.”
President Bush’s fiscal year 2006 defense budget allocated $9.4 billion of the $419.3 billion budget to shipbuilding, with $2.4 billion of that total committed for one Virginia class submarine.
