IAM Local S6 Raises the Alarm About Subcontracting at the Shipyard

Machinists Union (IAM) Local S6 leaders are raising concerns that Bath Iron Works is disingenuously claiming there is a shortage of job applicants in order to justify hiring non-union subcontractors to take jobs from union workers. The company has set a goal to hire as many as 1000 new employees to work on 12 destroyers under contract while it bids on a class of 20 frigates for the US Navy. Machinists members insist that the issue isn’t a lack of applicants, but rather a “fractured” hiring process.

“We continue to hear many complaints about the hiring process,” union leaders wrote on the local’s Facebook page. “Some accounts of people that have applied and heard nothing, or have interviewed and are awaiting an offer, often for extended periods of time.”

Local S6 leaders have suggested numerous solutions to address this issue, but thus far they have fallen on deaf ears with the company. Union leaders have suggested that state lawmakers may want to revisit a $45 billion tax break granted to the company last year if the situation isn’t remedied. If you or someone you know has been frustrated by the application process to BIW please email: biwemploymentstatus@yahoo.com