
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993                   TAG: 9306030042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

2,500 LOSING JOBS AT 4 SHIPYARDS

Nearly 2,500 civilian employees at four Navy shipyards will be laid off this year, and about 3,100 others have accepted financial incentives to retire early, the Defense Department announced Wednesday.

The department for the first time spelled out the number of civilian positions it expects to cut at shipyards by Sept. 30, the end of the budget year.

At Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, 1,304 will be laid off and 596 will take early retirement.

At Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash., 424 civilian jobs will be lost, and an additional 1,176 workers chose to accept the early retirement option.

At Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, N.H., 699 will be laid off and 501 are taking early retirement.

At Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Calif., 45 will be cut and 380 will retire early.

At Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, which the Congress has ordered closed by 1996, no layoffs are planned this year, but 537 civilians are taking early retirement.

Mare Island is on the Pentagon's 1993 list of military installations it recommends be closed. The Base Closure and Realignment Commission recently added Norfolk and Portsmouth to the list of bases under review for possible closure. Puget Sound is not set to be closed.

The workers who will be laid off at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard will be notified individually within about two weeks.

One of the almost 600 workers at the Norfolk yard taking early retirement is B.L. Gillian, who said he felt it was time to get out after 25 years.

But for others, like Mark Elmore, the future was uncertain. "It's a day-to-day thing," Elmore said. "You just don't know what's going to happen."

The workers are to be let go by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

The shipyard announcement was the latest in a string of dismal employment news for Hampton Roads, where Pentagon cuts already are threatening to close the Norfolk Naval Aviation Depot with a loss of 4,400 jobs.

"Layoffs like this continue to have a dampening effect on consumer confidence," said Christine Chmura, an economist for Crestar Bank in Richmond.

For every shipyard job lost, she said, 1.7 other jobs are eliminated, mainly among shipyard suppliers, retailers and restaurants.

by CNB