THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 5, 1995 TAG: 9502050032
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding and its largest union, after marathon negotiations, have reached a tentative agreement that is likely to avert a threatened strike.
The agreement was reached Saturday after management dropped its demand for wage concessions from the shipyard's nearly 12,500 hourly laborers. It still must be ratified by the union in a vote scheduled for Monday. The present contract expires at midnight tonight.
``There is no wage reduction in this agreement,'' said shipyard spokesman Michael Hatfield.
That's something of a victory for Local 8888 of the United Steelworkers of America. While the Steelworkers union represents its 7,000 members, the contract will cover all hourly workers at the giant Peninsula shipyard.
The union had been threatening a strike if its members rejected the shipyard's contract proposal, which included wage reductions. Union officials were unavailable for comment Saturday.
The yard had been adamant about seeking wage and benefit reductions in order to make it more competitive in the global shipbuilding market.
Newport News Shipbuilding has had to plunge back into the competitive world of commercial shipbuilding in the wake of declining orders from the Navy for new aircraft carriers and submarines. The budget cuts are forcing the yard to slash its work force to between 14,000 and 15,000 by the end of 1996 from about 20,000 today. In 1990, it employed about 29,000.
Building a Navy warship is similar to building an exotic sports car by hand in terms of labor, design and other costs. Commercial shipbuilding is more like assembling an average family sedan on a production line.
``We felt we had to control costs in order to make ourselves more competitive, and that included reducing wages,'' Hatfield said.
In exchange for not reducing wages, the union agreed to work with management to find productivity and efficiency improvements at the yard that will reduce its overall cost structure, Hatfield said.
Negotiations went on throughout the night Friday and the two sides reached a consensus Saturday morning, Hatfield said.
The union's negotiating team will present the proposed contract to members at 2 p.m. today at the Hampton University Convocation Center. Voting on the contract is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. Monday at the union hall at 4306 Huntington Ave. and continue until 1a.m. Tuesday.
Results will be announced Tuesday.
Hatfield declined to elaborate on details of the tentative agreement. He also wouldn't say much about why the shipyard gave up seeking wage concessions.
``Negotiations are a process of give and take,'' he said. by CNB