THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190407
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
An additional disappointment looms for the remaining 2,400 employees at the Norfolk Naval Aviation Depot: They may have to leave their jobs five months earlier than planned.
Union representatives, along with various other employees, believe the Navy wants to pull the plug on the depot in April rather than September 1996.
NADEP officials said Tuesday they knew nothing of the proposal.
``There has been no change in our closure date,'' a spokesman said.
But Rep. Owen B. Pickett, who met Tuesday with the chief of naval operations, Adm. Jeremy ``Mike'' Boorda, said: ``I know it is on the table for consideration. I spoke with the CNO this afternoon, and he has agreed to promptly make a thorough review of the matter and respond to me, hopefully by the end of this week.''
Pickett, whose district includes Virginia Beach and parts of Norfolk, said it is ``unfortunate and ill-advised on the part of the Navy to disrupt the plans of the loyal employees at NADEP Norfolk by suggesting the closure date be accelerated.''
A shortfall in the Navy's budget for depot-level maintenance has been blamed for the suggestion of an earlier closing date, officials said.
``The Navy is reviewing our anticipated depot workload in looking at our plan for closing the aviation depots to determine if an adjustment is needed to the current timeline,'' Lt. Denny Moynihan, a Navy spokesman, said Tuesday.
But he said the review was ``barely under way'' and may not affect the timing.
The facility, at Norfolk Naval Air Station, was ordered closed by the 1993 Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission.
For more than 77 years, it employed up to 4,500 civilian defense workers who were responsible in later years mainly for repair and maintenance on the F-14 Tomcat fighter and A-6 Intruder medium-attack bomber. It also provides engineering, manufacturing, field technical assistance and other support.
Since the closing was announced, the Navy has begun to shift its F-14 work, along with what is left of the dwindling A-6 Intruder work, to the NADEP at Jacksonville, Fla.
A number of Norfolk NADEP employees have moved to Jacksonville as well.
The early-closing proposal is unfair, said Don Thompson, chairman of Local 39 of the Association of Machinists and Aerospace Employees at Norfolk NADEP.
``We've got a lot of our work being taken over by Jacksonville now,'' he said. ``We're doing the work here, but the revenue is going down there.
``Somebody is really putting the screws to us.''
Thompson predicted that if the Navy cuts the F-14 maintenance program, then it will limit future jobs for Jacksonville NADEP employees, too.
``It will cause them to turn over the program to private industry,'' said Thompson. ``And with Grumman Aerospace right up the street in St. Augustine, that will leave all of us behind.''
It was unclear how employees would be affected by the earlier closure, said Thompson. He said it could result in lost jobs or more forced retirements.
``We really don't know.''
KEYWORDS: BASE CLOSINGS MILITARY BASES by CNB