Avondale Shipyard workers, union representatives and others working frantically to keep the shipyard open are starting from a $271 million hole, said Ron Ault, president of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department.
That’s how much Huntington Ingalls Industries, which owns Avondale, expects to recover in shutdown costs from the federal government, according to its quarterly Securities and Exchange Commission filing last month.
It amounts to a shutdown incentive “ that we have to figure out a way to overcome to get them to the table ,” Ault said.
Huntington plans to consolidate its U.S. Navy shipbuilding operations in Pascagoula, Miss., in 2013, which, according to current plans, will result in Avondale’s closure. About 1,500 employees, or roughly 30 percent of its work force, have already been laid off.
Huntington spokesman Bill Glenn refused to be interviewed but said in a written statement that the company is working with government officials to “ explore redeployment opportunities for Avondale .”
[mappress]
Source: neworleanscitybusiness, September 29, 2011