Contract Saves 600 Jobs at Navy Long Beach Yard

The Long Beach Naval Shipyard won a $25-million federal contract Tuesday to overhaul the Navy destroyer Callaghan, canceling the planned layoff of 600 workers.

Officials said, however, that a separate plan to eliminate 200 shipyard jobs in a reorganization to streamline operations at the Terminal Island facility will go forward.

The Navy’s decision to award the Callaghan contract to the federally owned shipyard was hailed as a sign that it could successfully compete with private companies for the prized Navy contracts.

“This award demonstrates that (the shipyard) can remain competitive in the West Coast surface ship overhaul market,” said U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), who had asked the Navy to steer more work toward the Long Beach yard.

“It is also my expectation that the Callaghan decision will permit the Navy to retain hundreds of jobs at (the shipyard) that were previously scheduled for elimination,” Wilson added.

The yearlong overhaul of the Callaghan will start in September, officials said.

Originally, the Callaghan and three other warships had been slated for overhauls at the shipyard. But a last-minute change in a federal appropriations bill allowed private yards to bid for the overhaul contracts as well.

The Long Beach Naval Shipyard has steadily reduced its work force from a high of more than 7,000 five years ago to about 4,600.

Long Beach officials had lobbied hard in Washington to avoid layoffs and to retain the millions of dollars the employees pour every year into the local economy.

“It’s very important to keep the work level at the shipyard up right now so that it doesn’t become vulnerable to closure,” said Laurie Hunter, vice president of the Greater Long Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The president of a Washington-based trade group of private shipyards said he had suspected that the Navy would send a single ship for overhaul to the Long Beach yard.

John Stocker, president of the Shipbuilders Council of America, said he wants to review the data used by the Navy for the decision to ensure that the process was fair.