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.
Navy Saves Avondale Jobs Until 2013
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With layoffs set to begin Oct. 4, the more than 5,000 workers at the Avondale Shipyard near New Orleans can breathe a little easier. The U.S. Navy, the shipyard’s biggest customer, has 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 at least until the end of 2013, according to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department President Ron Ault applauded work by the White House, Landrieu and U.S. Rep. Charles Melancon (D-La.) to convince the Navy to alter its construction plans and keep Avondale open.
It also shows that the Obama administration is responsive to the economic impact of any loss of employment in the Gulf Coast region. This buys us some breathing space to keep Avondale open beyond Northrop Grumman’s scheduled shutdown date and we are very grateful to everyone who helped.
Workers Fighting to Save 5,000 Jobs at Avondale Shipyard
The residents of New Orleans rallied to survive Hurricanes Katrina and Rita five years ago. They are slowly recovering from the largest oil spill in U.S. history. But now they are coming together to fight a disaster that would cause more economic harm than the hurricanes and the BP spill combined.
One of the largest, best-paying employers in the Crescent City, Avondale Shipyard with 5,000 union employees, is shutting down in 2013. Northrop Grumman, which owns the Avondale yard and the Ingalls Shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., is shifting the current work from Avondale to Ingalls. The U.S. Navy, Avondale’s biggest customer, has said it intends to re-bid the last two ships in the current series of ships to open competition. If it loses that work, the Ingalls yard is at risk of the same fate as Avondale in 2013.
But the union movement in New Orleans is not about to let the yard close without a fight. Union leaders are trying to find a buyer for the shipyards and are enlisting the support of elected officials and the Navy to save the yard and the jobs. They have teamed up with a bipartisan group of elected officials in Louisiana to urge the federal government to intervene and help the state keep the yard open. (See video above).
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.
Defense Employees Celebrate Repeal of Anti-Worker Personnel System
After a tough six-year battle, U.S. Department of Defense employees are celebrating a major victory today. The 2010 Defense authorization congressional conference committee yesterday repealed the anti-worker National Security Personnel System (NSPS).
Created by the Bush administration, the NSPS was fatally flawed from the beginning. The personnel system took away Defense Department workers’ right to collective bargaining and personnel appeals. After the last Republican-led Congress refused to block the NSPS, the United Department of Defense Workers Coalition (UDWC) worked tirelessly to restore fairness and equity to the workplace. Members of the coalition, made up of the 36 unions that represent Defense Department workers, helped get out the vote to ensure a Democratic majority in Congress and that majority restored the Defense workers’ collective bargaining rights as part of the 2009 Defense authorization bill.
