Production Workers to Strike Against Major Navy Shipbuilder

Production workers at one of the Navy’s largest shipbuilders have voted to strike.

Machinists Union Local S6 announced Sunday that its 4,300 members rejected a three-year contract proposed by Bath Iron Works in Maine, setting the stage for the first strike in two decades to begin at midnight.

The company’s three-year proposal involved a 3% raise each year.

But the union’s major issue wasn’t with wages, pensions or benefits. Instead, there were more than a dozen changes that the union considered to be concessions including hiring of subcontractors.

Bath Iron Works is a subsidiary of General Dynamics and employs 6,800 people.

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