DECEMBER 2009 LABORS’ VIEWS 

            Service awards to members of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America for the month of December were presented to: 

            Alfred York                35 yrs.

            Frederick Pierce            30 yrs.

            Bruce Stefanelli            30 yrs.

Congratulations! 

            Layoffs:  The 96 carpenters who received their layoff notices were notified that their employment has been extended until January 29, 2010.  This was good news for those who are affected especially because of the time of year in which this is occurring. With the economy as bad as it, we are truly grateful that these carpenters will retain their jobs a little longer. 

            All of our carpenters who were extended in Newport News, VA, will be returning to CT on Dec. 18 (before our shutdown).   Road work for next year is still slow although there is some work in Puget for roughly 21 of our carpenters starting in February 2010.

This work, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 19, will only be business travel.  This means that the job is not long enough to qualify for the EWA package.  The EWA package requires 30 days or more of work and provides the 15% increase in pay.   We also have the same type of work scheduled from April 13 to April 30 for seven carpenters in Puget.  In June we have work there for four carpenters until July 15 which qualifies for the EWA package.   As of now, these are the only road jobs our department has for next year.   I know that every little bit helps, but the problem is that next year we don’t have much of a work load, and those few short road jobs don’t really help.  One other factor that could play into this is that, since it is business travel, we won’t be offered the 15% increase on those two jobs (in the spring) so we could have a problem supporting them.   If on January 29, the Company does goes through with the layoff of 96 carpenters, 42 of them will be removed from our road job list, and most of them are big supporters of the road work. 

            The Union has worked with Management on putting in a bid for dismantling the mock-ups in 16J.  The Company had an outside firm give a bid for this work, and the Company said that the bid was too high.  I feel that the bid we gave was a good, reasonable bid.   This was difficult because of the number of different materials involved and the various methods needed to dismantle the mock-ups.  There was a lot of time and thought that went into the bid.  Everyone needs to keep in mind that our bid needed to be low enough that the Company agrees to go ahead with this work.  If both bids are too high, the Company may decide to postpone this work because it is too costly at this time. This really is the time when we need any work we can get.  I suggested that whatever the budget allows for this work, let us do it until the budget runs out.   I’m not sure when we will hear if we got the job or not, but I am hopeful that we get it. 

             A flooring application on a boat which was always done by a vendor was recently given to the carpenters. This was one of the jobs which we had been fighting to do for awhile.  There were a number of problems before the job ever got started.  These included no materials, no tools, and no work package.  They overcame the problems and did the job in the time they had before the section was sent out.  The quality of the work was just as good if not better than the vendor’s work had been.  The work that was done by Gary Urso. Lee Jones, and John Lemay saved the Company a lot of money compared to what the vendors would have charged.  I want to thank them for their efforts, and I hope that this proves to the Company that we should be the ones to continue to do this work in the future.  I have always supported keeping vendors out of the shipyard especially when we can do a lot of this work better and at less cost to the Company. 

            As of November 18, 2009, there were twelve confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu at Electric Boat.  I strongly encourage everyone to use the hand sanitizers that are located throughout the shipyard.  Hopefully, that will prevent sickness in our work areas. 

            As I write this, I am assuming that we will receive Christmas turkeys this year.  As in the past,  I am collecting vouchers for the Friends of Assisi Food Pantry in Danielson.   I  am thanking people in advance for donating their vouchers to others who are less fortunate. 

            I want to wish everybody safe and happy holidays.  May the new year bring us all good health and steady work.