BATH

More than 100 Bath Iron Works employees are expected to get unwelcome news soon.

According to Dan Dowling, president of Local S6, 50 preservation technicians, 27 pipefitters and 41 shipfitters will lose their jobs by Dec. 20.

Dowling said he received the news officially around noon Thursday.

“We have no information yet about when these workers might expect to be called back,” he said. “That’s something you may want to discuss with the company.”

BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini said that, as in all these cases, the company will work with the union to see if there is room in other trades where some of the affected employees might be able to work.

“We never really know until the effective date (Dec. 20) if there is work in other trades,” DeMartini said.

He also said he was unable to predict when, or if, the workers would be called back.

“We’re losing skilled workers,” he said. “It’s part of the supply and demand of the business, but it’s hard losing all these folks.”

DeMartini said the union was given its 10 days notice Thursday, and that affected employees would get notified five days before the layoff date.

When the union is given news of layoffs, it contacts the state Department of Labor, which initiates a Rapid Response Team to assist employees with the transition, DeMartini said.

That assistance may include help getting state services, such as unemployment benefits, but may also include opportunities for training for other careers.

One of the companies that normally assists in BIW layoffs — Coastal Counties Workforce Inc., of Brunswick — has not yet been called in, deputy director Antoinette Manscusi said.

If they are called, Coastal Counties Workforce has funding for job training and some discretionary funds for science, technology, engineering and math training, Manscusi said.

This year has been a tough year for BIW employees.

Including the 118 to be released Dec. 20, approximately 300 union members have been laid off this year — about 8 percent of membership, Dowling said.

From April through October, a 22-week furlough due to the federal sequestration left workers at SupShip missing a fifth of their paychecks.

Then, in October, more than 170 were laid off briefly due to the budget fight that led to a federal shutdown.

SupShip staff are not employees of Bath Iron Works; they are civilian employees of the U.S. Navy who supervise contract work and do quality control on work done for the Navy at BIW.

BIW, which is owned by General Dynamics, said earlier this year its work force numbered about 5,450 workers, which it said was about 200 more jobs than it had at the start of the year.

ghamilton@timesrecord.com

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