Shipyard Chief French to Retire From NASSCO
Longtime National Steel & Shipbuilding executive C. Larry French, who managed to keep a relatively genteel public image by letting his subordinates take the hard-line stands in several labor disputes, will retire as NASSCO chairman on March 1, French confirmed Monday.
Word of French’s retirement has been circulating recently among NASSCO and industry executives.
French, 60, said he plans to remain in San Diego County, where he is involved in several nonprofit community activities, and intends to stay active in shipbuilding industry issues.
Joined Firm in ’68
French joined NASSCO in 1968 after a nine-year career with Kaiser Industries, which at the time owned 50% of the San Diego shipyard--the largest shipyard on the West Coast.
Kaiser sold its NASSCO interest to Boise, Ida.-based Morrison Knudsen Co., which already owned 50% of NASSCO, in December, 1979.
Since then, the shipyard has operated as Morrison Knudsen’s wholly owned subsidiary.
French advanced steadily through NASSCO’s executive ranks--he was named president in 1978 and chairman last year.
No replacement has yet been selected.
French said that it is uncertain whether NASSCO President Richard Vortmann will be promoted to chairman. “It’s an option for Morrison Knudsen (but) in the past, the chairman has always been from the parent corporation.”
French said he “wanted to retire three or four years ago,” but he agreed to remain “until we could build an organization and until I was 60 years old.”
In the past few years, French has captained a troubled NASSCO operation. The recession of the early 1980s and an increase in foreign competition cut the shipbuilding industry’s new construction work. Industry advocates have typically blamed President Reagan’s cuts in federal subsidies as increasing numbers of American-flag ships are now being built abroad.
French has been an outspoken critic of that trend and, in an interview Monday, said he would continue to speak out following his retirement.
As a result of the economy and federal policy, NASSCO’s high-water work force mark of 7,600 employees in 1980 has not been threatened. Current employment stands at about 5,000.
The company is rebounding, however. A year ago, it received a $250-million contract to build two oil tankers for a Houston firm--it’s first new-construction work since 1980.
In addition, that contract represented the first commercial oceangoing ships to be built by any domestic shipbuilder since April, 1981.
Revenues this year will total approximately $400 million, about even with last year and significantly above 1983’s revenues of $299.4 million.
Organizationally, NASSCO has trimmed some overhead costs, hired several new top executives from outside the company and experimented with Japanese-type management and workplace models.
French also acknowledged that his management style over the years has been to have other NASSCO executives take the up-front, hard-line stands in several labor disputes.
NASSCO workers walked off their jobs in contract disputes last October for 11 days, in 1981 for 20 days, in 1970 for one month and in 1967 for four months. Employees also held a three-day wildcat strike in 1980 to protest safety conditions and worker deaths on the job.
