THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, February 20, 1995 TAG: 9502200041
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: Base Closings: The Final Round
What's at Stake for Hampton Roads?
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE AND KERRY DEROCHI, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
Nearly two years ago, defenders of Norfolk Naval Shipyard entered the base-closure hearing at Chrysler Hall prepared to show how the Portsmouth yard was superior to other Navy yards across the country.
They left shaken by the realization that the biggest threat to the Portsmouth shipyard's existence wasn't in Charleston, S.C.; Long Beach, Calif.; or Kittery, Maine - homes to other Navy shipyards - but across Hampton Roads, in Newport News.
Private-sector shipyards such as Newport News Shipbuilding could do virtually all the work performed by Norfolk Naval Shipyard and save the Navy the cost of the operating its own yard, said members of the 1993 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
The commission, however, wasn't charged with deciding whether to transfer Navy ship maintenance to private shipyards. Its mission was to examine the relative value of military bases, so the Norfolk Naval Shipyard survived the 1993 round of base closings. But many saw it as just a warm-up to the 1995 round when the public-private question would surface again.
But the public-private question - which seemed to be the biggest threat to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard - has largely disappeared.
Those familiar with the base-closing process are confident that the Navy seems committed to keeping at least one yard on each coast.
And, for the East Coast, that seems to mean Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
``The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is the Navy's largest all-purpose yard,'' said U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky, the Democrat in whose district the shipyard is located. ``The big advantage is that it can work on any ship in the U.S. Navy.
``And, of course, most of the ships in the U.S. Navy will be based in Norfolk. So, we do have a distinct advantage.''
Much of the success of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in this round may be attributed to an aggressive campaign to pare down. It employs about 7,700 people today, down from more than 11,000 during the last round of base closings. It ranks as the fourth-largest employer in Hampton Roads.
Bases that carry too much excess capacity can attract the attention of the base-closure commission. As well, public shipyards are known for costly overhead and hulking, empty spaces.
These yards, once the mainstay of the federal government's manufacturing base, have come under fire since the Cold War ended five years ago.
The Navy fleet has been shrinking faster than Pentagon budgets after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Older ships are retired rather than overhauled, and the smaller fleet means less need for shipyard capacity.
So defense budget analysts began looking hard at where and what could be cut.
In 1991, it was the Philadelphia shipyard. Two years later, it was Charleston and Mare Island Naval Shipyard near San Francisco.
Though this year's list of recommended closings has not been released, those close to the base-closing process predict the ax will hit the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California this year. The yard narrowly escaped closing in 1993 when it survived by a 4-3 vote on the commission.
If Long Beach is closed, the Navy will be left with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., the Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, to service its fleet.
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard works only on submarines, and Long Beach works only on conventional surface ships. Both the Norfolk and Puget Sound yards can work on anything in the fleet, nuclear powered or conventional, submarine or surface.
``It would be more likely to see Portsmouth and Long Beach ordered closed,'' said James R. McCaul, a shipbuilding consultant and president of IMA Associates Inc. in Washington.
Earlier this year, the Maine yard was expected to be on the list, especially since the Navy is cutting its sub fleet, that yard's specialty, in half. But a campaign by congressional leaders and the timing of the 1996 presidential primaries are believed to have saved it.
No presidential hopefuls want to arrive in New Hampshire just months after voting to close the yard, which employs more than 4,000 people just across the river in Maine.
``Portsmouth is tiny,'' said Tim Colton, maritime consultant with Colton & Co., in Arlington, Va. ``If it isn't closed this time, it's pure politics.''
If the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and Norfolk Naval Shipyard remain open, the Navy may need to cut back the work forces at each even more.
Union officials at Norfolk Naval Shipyard question whether the yard's work force can be cut any more.
``If we go any lower, we won't be able to perform the mission,'' said Ron Ault, business representative for the International Association of Machinists, one of 14 unions that make up the Tidewater Virginia Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, which represents about 4,600 hourly workers in the shipyard.
``You can't continue to downsize and maintain all the yard's capabilities,'' Ault said.
The shipyard loses workers with valuable skills and experience every time there is a reduction in force, he said.
If politics keeps Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open, politics probably played a role in keeping the base-closing debate focused on public shipyards in this round.
Debate in 1993 centered on the issue of public vs. private yards, but the issue hasn't surfaced as strongly in the current debate.
There was even talk of the Navy retaining ownership of the shipyards, but contracting the operation out to private companies.
That is not really a cost-effective option, said consultant McCaul. It merely shuffles a shipyard's vast overhead from one part of the Navy budget to another.
There is little evidence that such an arrangement would save the government any money because many of the overhead costs would remain the same.
``It would save small change,'' McCaul said.
Besides, few, if any, private companies would be willing to take on those added costs, especially in an era of defense downsizing.
``The main trouble with naval shipyards is they are enormously expensive to operate and to maintain,'' Colton said. ``There are really a very limited number of potential uses in the private sector for a full-service shipyard.''
There is also growing support for the need to retain public yards in the face of creating a private monopoly.
``It's always been an issue whether you can turn the public yard over to a private company, but I just don't think it's in the cards,'' said Sisisky, whose district stretches from Chesapeake to Petersburg. ``What will happen is without the Norfolk Naval Shipyard the only one that could do the work would be Newport News (Shipbuilding) and there wouldn't be any competition.''
Such a monopoly would rob the government of options for ship repair and would expose a vital national interest to uncontrollable market forces and labor strife.
``The private sector can do it and the private sector is more cost effective,'' Colton said. ``But what happens if you do that and Newport News goes bust next year? The private sector is always in danger that the capability will go away because of the market forces.''
Closing Norfolk Naval Shipyard would hurt smaller private yards in Hampton Roads that do a lot of work on Navy surface ships based in Norfolk.
Richard Goldbach, president of Metro Machine Corp., says the private companies rely on the public yard for business.
``Norfolk Naval Shipyard is not just important to the Navy . . . it's an important ingredient to the success of the private yards,'' Goldbach said. ``It would not make sense for the private shipyards to replicate the technical services of Norfolk Naval.
``Those things that are within our capability we provide a lot more bang for the buck, but I'm careful to say what's within our capability, because we just couldn't get by without the technical support of Norfolk Naval Shipyard.''
But questions remain as to the future of Norfolk Naval Shipyard, even if it escapes the 1995 closure list. The great defense build-up of the 1980s has given way to a marked drop-off. The Navy is reducing its fleet from 550 ships to about 340.
``There's only so much work to go around, and Newport News can handle all of it,'' said Colton. ``Norfolk Naval could certainly be scaled back. But that's better than being closed. A lot better.'' MEMO: Related story on page A9
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by STEVE EARLEY, Staff
The destroyer Spruance undergoes work at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in
Portsmouth. Struggling to cut excess capacity, the Navy has reduced
yard employment by 3,000 since the last round of base closings.
Map
Graphic by John Corbitt, Staff
Photo by STEVE EARLEY, Staff
Diversity is the advantage at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, which is
working on ships as large as the carrier George Washington,
foreground.
Graphic with photos
FACES OF THE BASE:
Mark Doiron, 32
Suffolk
Sheet metal mechanic
Family: Married
Years at shipyard: 14
``This is a good place to work, one of the best shipyards, as far
as quality of work. There's nothing we can't fix.''
Miranda Jones, 37
Chesapeake
Sheet metal mechanic
Family: Four children
Years at shipyard: 15
``I've gotten a lot of different training here; it's been a good
experience.''
Lisa Apperson, 38
Portsmouth
Shipfitter mechanic
Family: Single
Years at shipyard: 15
``We need to start the apprenticeship program up again. It's
important to have new classes, new blood. The future is the
apprenticeship program.''
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSING BASE CLOSURE AND REALIGNMENT COMMISSION
SHIPYARDS by CNB