A Bittersweet Reprieve for Naval Workers

A hot summer breeze swept through the modest home of Louis Rodriguez on Sunday afternoon as he and two dozen co-workers from the Long Beach Naval Shipyard gathered around the television set. On the screen were seven suit-clad men, members of a government commission, meeting 3,000 miles away in the nation’s capital.

In the corner of the den, on a table draped in a festive pink cloth, were a dozen bottles of Andre’s Extra Dry Champagne on ice that slowly melted as the televised meeting dragged on. At any moment, the commission would recommend whether to shut down the shipyard or keep it open. The wait was agonizing.

“We’ve been on a roller coaster, up and down,” said Rodriguez, a mechanical engineer-technician who is president of one of the yard’s labor unions. “There are families here who haven’t slept. I didn’t sleep last night. We don’t know if we’ll be out of a job or not.”

At 2:20 p.m., they got their answer, albeit a bittersweet one. The Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission would recommend to President Bush that the Long Beach Naval Shipyard--with 4,100 workers the third-largest employer in the city--remain open. The panel also suggested that the shipyard’s status be reevaluated in two years.

Amid hoots and handshakes, tears and hugs, the champagne was uncorked. “A salute to the Long Beach Naval Shipyard,” Rodriguez proclaimed as he lifted his glass. “Let’s hope we don’t have to do this again in ’93.”

The merry-making was undeterred by the panel’s simultaneous recommendation to close the Long Beach Naval Station, home base to more than 29,000 enlisted personnel. Although officials had lobbied hard to save both, many had realized weeks ago that the base probably could not be saved and had focused their attention on making sure the shipyard would be.

Throughout California on Sunday, there were other suspenseful moments--some ending in elation, others in dismay--as the presidential advisory panel conducted its painstaking, final deliberations on a controversial “hit list,” designed to save the Pentagon money by closing military installations.

In San Diego, civic leaders celebrated the panel’s recommendation that the Naval Training Center at Point Loma and the Marine Corps Recruit Depot stay open. Local officials said the region’s huge military presence draws thousands of visitors annually and pumps $10 billion into the area’s economy, constituting about 20% of the gross regional product.

“The whole community is obviously going to be very pleased,” said San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who like other base proponents said economic, national security and other reasons supported maintaining the facilities.

Although the panel also voted to put Tustin’s largest employer--the Marine Corps Air Station--out of business, city fathers there said they do not mind. They are looking to cash in on the sale of 1,200 acres of valuable real estate to bring in a mix of commercial, industrial and residential development.

The scene was not so upbeat in Northern California, where the panel’s recommendation to close Ft. Ord in Seaside and the Sacramento Army Depot prompted predictions of economic doom.

In Monterey County, there was talk of how to initiate an environmental cleanup of Ft. Ord, which is on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list.

With nearly 15,000 military and 7,000 civilian employees generating $700 million a year, Ft. Ord is the county’s third-largest industry, behind agriculture and tourism. The recommendation to close the 50-year-old Army base prompted U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) to say he was “terribly disappointed.”

In the town of Marina, Mayor Edith Johnsen predicted that the population of 26,000 would drop by more than half when Ft. Ord shuts down. “We are a one-company town,” Johnsen said. “It’s going to be tough. We have a lot of mom-and-pop stores.”

Back in Long Beach, City Councilman Tom Clark predicted the loss of the naval station would deal a $300-million blow to the local economy.

“We’ve been through this before,” said Clark, noting that the naval station was previously closed twice, once in the 1950s and once in 1974. “We know this has a serious impact on the housing market and the merchants in this town.”

Along with the financial impact come other intangible--though no less important--losses in a community that prides itself on having long provided a home for the Navy.

But perhaps nowhere is that pride felt as keenly as at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard.

The 48-year-old shipyard, staffed almost entirely by civilians, is a place where people come to work at 17 and stay until they retire, a close-knit community where fathers work side by side with their sons and daughters--who in turn would like to see their sons and daughters carry on the tradition.

Equipped to repair all types of Navy ships, with the exception of those that are nuclear-powered, the shipyard has been praised as the most efficient of the nation’s eight government-operated yards. In March, the secretary of the Navy awarded the yard a commendation.

For the past two years, as the government debated their fate, shipyard employees have been living on a seesaw. Emotions ran high as they fought for their jobs, lobbying government officials and the members of the presidential advisory panel. Many employees put off major decisions, such as buying cars and homes, or having children.

Some, fed up, decided to quit. “We’ve lost critical people with critical skills each month,” Donald K. Spencer, a project manager who works on combat systems at the yard, said before Sunday’s vote. “We have people now who say that whatever the outcome is, they are going to look for new jobs. They want something more reliable.”

Stolberg reported from Los Angeles, Fiore from Long Beach. Also contributing were Times staff writers Patrick McDonnell in San Diego and Kristina Lindgren in Orange County.