BATH

Bath Iron Works employees flowed down Washington Street late Thursday morning in a large current of vocal protest, opposing the way the union says it has been treated by the company.

Many on lunch break, they chanted slogans and carried a banner with the acronym FOF (For Our Future).

Jay Wadleigh, president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) Local 6 said there is another year until the shipyard’s union contract expires. The solidarity rally was to show that with a year to go, “we do expect it may be difficult, (but) we are solid.”

“The union is behind its leadership and the company is going to have to negotiate with us and not dictate to us,” Wadleigh said.

The company, he said, “keeps doing things that are upsetting the membership that are not contractual and that’s not going to help us get to where we need to get next year.”

“They need to abide by the contract, stop misleading the media and just work with us so we can get these costs of the ships down,” Wadleigh continued.

The matter went to arbitration and a federal lawsuit is still pending charging BIW with violating its contract with workers by seeking to modify job descriptions outside of a formal contract negotiation.

According to a May 18 Bangor Daily News article, nearly 1,000 members of the International Association of Machinists Union Local marched the length of the shipyard at midday March 24 to rally support and to protest a variety of changes proposed by BIW President Fred Harris. Caps on defense spending result in fewer Naval contracts and Harris has said the changes, including outsourcing work and cross-training employees, will increase the shipyard’s efficiency and keep the costs of building destroyers competitive.

Going forward, Wadleigh said Thursday, he wants to see good-paying jobs with good benefits maintained that keep up with the cost of living.

“If we could find ways to work better together and legislate that, that’s better,” he said, adding that’s the preferred outcome.

Wadleigh said there were several years of good relations between the union and BIW, until about a year and a half ago after Harris took the helm — bringing a change of leadership and a change of philosophy.

There is work leaving the state and going, in some cases, to companies within the U.S. that could potentially subcontract work outside of the U.S. At least one company that received work subcontracts some work to South Korea, Wadleigh said.

With about 5,700 shipbuilders at BIW, staffing is at a good level. But, that could change if the shipyard doesn’t win the U.S. Coast Guard contracts to build a new class of offshore patrol cutters, construction of which is scheduled to start in 2017. It will compete against two other shipyards to win the contracts worth up to $1.5 billion.

Wadleigh said this would be good work the fill the gap until the shipyard gets the next DDG award and help keep employment stable.

Asked to comment on the rally, Matthew Wickenheiser, BIW’s manager of communications and public relations, referred to a company bulletin issued Wednesday.

“BIW must work together as one yard to become more efficient, affordable and competitive in order to win future work and maintain current employment levels,” the bulletin stated. “If the company does not win future work, such as the Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter Program, BIW faces the loss of over 1,000 jobs.”

In anticipation of the rally, “BIW respects the right to demonstrate, but the simple fact of the matter is such a demonstration won’t bring down costs or make BIW more competitive in order to win Navy and Coast Guard contracts and continue building ships in Midcoast Maine,” the company stated in the release. “That will be done by making common sense changes that eliminate production bottlenecks and reduce wait times — potentially saving thousands of hours each year. That is where we must all focus our efforts.”

To the question of whether the shipyard wants the efficiencies to cut jobs: “BIW is seeking these changes to make the yard more efficient, affordable and competitive,” the company stated in the bulletin. “The goal is to remove bottlenecks and obstacles that slow skilled mechanics down as they attempt to perform their core work. BIW hired about 600 tradespeople last year and is on track to hire another 500 this year. The company has more than enough core shipbuilding work for the workforce — we are trying to do that work more efficiently.”

“Shipbuilding dollars are getting thinner and thinner and we are doing to have to find ways to do things smarter and cheaper, there’s no debate over that,” said Wadleigh. “We’re the best shipbuilders in the world. We want to work. We just want to be treated with dignity and respect and be negotiated with and not dictated to.

“Ask us to do something and we’ll bend over backward,” he added. “Tell us we’re going to do something and you’re going to get some resistance.”

Wadleigh hopes the rally will open the eyes of the company, and make leadership want to sit back down and negotiate.

There are a lot of people and families impacted by BIW, Mid-coast’s largest employer,.

“It’s in everyone’s best interest if we can find amenable ways to come through this stuff,” Wadleigh said. “The answer isn’t by going to federal court; the answer isn’t by taking everything to arbitration.”

During the rally Wadleigh said, “As this contract gets closer, the company needs to know that we — and I mean all of us — will accept nothing less than a fair contract.”

Whether just starting out or near retirement, Wadleigh said this contract is for everyone’s future, “so lets give a loud FOF right now so that Fred can hear us whether he’s in his office or if he’s in California, let’s let him hear us!”