Lawmakers Seek Assessment of Impact of Avondale Closing
Northrop Grumman is preparing to spin off its shipbuilding business next month, putting 4,000 skilled workers at the Avondale Shipyard in Louisiana out of work. The layoffs would devastate the Gulf region’s economy and the communities dependent on the shipbuilding industry.
At a New Orleans press conference today, Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) released a joint letter he sent along with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) to U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. In the letter, the lawmakers said:
The long-term economic impact of the loss of these jobs goes far beyond the immediate impact on these workers’ families. It will undoubtedly extend deep into the Gulf Coast communities that have yet to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the recent economic downturn and last year’s BP oil spill.
Workers Vow to Fight to Save Avondale as Layoffs Begin
Just days after some 175,000 people came together to march for jobs, justice and education, a real life struggle for jobs is being waged at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans. Today, the first layoffs at the shipyard began. Eventually, Northrop Grumman plans to lay off all 5,000 of the workers and get out of the shipbuilding business altogether.
We will not let this happen, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement.
Avondale is the hidden pillar for the entire Gulf Coast. It directly pumps over $2 billion a year into the economy. On top of 5,000 shipbuilders, 7,000 more will lose their jobs when Avondale closes. The economic impact will be many times that of the BP oil spill.
This region cannot afford another economic disaster. Yet that is exactly what the Gulf Coast is facing.
In mid-September, the U.S. Navy, the shipyard’s biggest customer, committed to complete the construction at Avondale of two warships currently being built at the yard, which will allow workers to stay on the job until the end of 2013.
Avondale Workers Rally to Save Their Shipyard
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Hundreds of union members, elected officials and community leaders joined workers from the Avondale shipyard near New Orleans last Friday to cheer the Navy’s actions to keep the shipyard working until 2014 and to reaffirm the need for a long-term solution.
Even though the shipyard will be busy, Northrop Grumman, which owns the yard, is moving full steam ahead on plans to lay off workers beginning Oct. 4 and evetually shut the yard down. The company announced it intends to get out of the shipbuilding business.
Wearing T-shirts and waving signs with the message, “Save Our Shipyard,” the crowd made it clear how much the yard, which employs 5,000 workers, is to the community that has already been hit by Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill.
Avondale Rally to Spotlight Need for Permanent Shipbuilding Solution
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Workers, unions and lawmakers successfully mobilized to keep open Northrop Grumman’s Avondale, La., shipyard after the company announced plans to end its shipbuilding operations, with the U.S. Navy saying last week it will accelerate shipbuilding plans that will keep the yard open to 2014.
Tomorrow, Avondale workers will rally to celebrate the new construction plans and urge the shipyard to stay open beyond 2014. Joining them will be AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault along with New Orleans community members.
More than 5,000 workers would be directly affected had the shipyard closed. Says Holt Baker:
The shipyard industry is a vital lifeline to the Gulf Coast region. This region has been pummeled by disaster after disaster, and the working community in Louisiana cannot afford the massive economic crisis that would result if this shipyard closes.
Five Years After Katrina: Frustration and Determination
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Unemployment in New Orleans is below the national average, but the poverty level is twice the national rate. The reasons behind that stark contrast tell the real story of what is going on five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Crescent City.
There’s lots of work that needs to be done in New Orleans. The problem is that nobody’s making a living off the work but the “chiefs and the thieves,” says Robert “Tiger” Hammond, president of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO.
Even though the federal government just announced a $1.8 billion school construction grant to the city, Hammond says workers will be hard pressed to get good-paying jobs out of the grant. The money is coming to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and doesn’t include Davis-Bacon requirements that workers be paid the prevailing local wage. What’s happening, says Hammond, is that construction workers are being deliberately misclassified as independent contractors so employers can pay them less than if they had a union contract. He adds:
It was hard enough to get a union job before Katrina. Now it’s even harder.
State Fed Leaders: Air Tanker Contract Should Go to Boeing
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Awarding the $35 billion contract for the Air Force’s refueling tankers to Boeing Co. is the clear choice for “investing in American workers, American knowledge, American security, and America’s future,” the presidents of 10 AFL-CIO state federations say in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
The letter, sent last week, urges the Pentagon to consider the impact on the U.S. economy and national security in deciding which company should receive the lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract.
In September 2008, Gates, who also was George W. Bush’s defense chief, announced he was canceling the competition for the refueling tankers and leaving it to the next administration to decide. Gates said the competition between Boeing Co. and European-based EADS/Northrop Grumman was “too controversial” to be settled during the last four months of the Bush administration.
Screen Actor Members Help Create Care Packages for U.S. Troops
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More than three dozen Screen Actors (SAG) members, including several veterans of USO troop tours, joined some 400 workers from Northrop Grumman’s operation in Southern California last month to stuff personal care packages for U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and other overseas deployments.
Nancy Sinatra, who first entertained U.S. troops in Vietnam on the legendary Bob Hope USO tours, said:
Every time we send out one of these packages, I think about where they are going….And I always hope and pray that the person receiving the package will be able to come home.
