Kaine, Warner write letters of concern to Navy about shipyard job losses

Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner and Hampton Roads' congressional delegation sent letters Thursday to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus voicing concern about layoffs in local private shipyards and the need to stabilize their workload.

"Hampton Roads is once again facing a period of change to its workload, only this time, we are in jeopardy of losing our highly skilled workforce because the Navy's demand is dipping temporarily until 2018," Kaine and Warner wrote.

The senators' letter and another from U.S. Reps. Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, Bobby Scott and Scott Rigell follow the recent layoffs of 480 salaried workers at Newport News Shipbuilding and last week's announcement of pending layoffs of 650 employees at BAE Systems' Norfolk shipyard, effective Nov. 20.

Another 300 temporary workers at BAE will be gone by the end of the year as well.

"Other yards in the area are anticipating further reductions but have yet to make them public," the congressmen's letter stated.

"Based on the Navy's plans and the conversations we have had with industry, we believe the anticipated layoffs could total over 2,500 jobs lost across the Hampton Roads shipbuilding and ship-repair industry over the next few years. The employees laid off will include skilled craftsmen and artisans with decades of experience under their belts."

The letters from the senators and congressmen urged the Navy to prepare a plan to stabilize the workload at the region's private shipyards.

Among options cited: speeding up the cruiser-modernization process and implementing public-private partnerships to contract out noncore work and/or give new hiring preferences to private shipyard workers at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, a public facility.

"At the water's edge, we need a stable workload to ensure we maintain the highly skilled workforce developed over years of supporting top Navy priorities," Kaine and Warner wrote.