Workers Doubt Logic of Closing Naval Shipyard

It’s not as if this is the first time the Long Beach Naval Shipyard has been eyed for closure. The threat has been there for years.

But even with an announcement expected today that it is one of nine California military bases on the secretary of defense’s hit list, many workers Thursday still refused to believe it.

“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Louis F. Rodriguez, president of one of the shipyard’s unions. “We saved the government over $90 million over a three-year period. We received a meritorious-unit commendation award. We are praised for our cost savings, our productivity and our safety.

“If anybody is thinking logically, we should not be on this list.”

Hundreds of employees this week have streamed through the office of the International Federation of Professionals and Technical Engineers, Local 174, Rodriguez said.

They stopped by one desk to sign a letter to Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, then paused by a fax machine so their plea would be electronically forwarded, then reached for a telephone to voice their concerns directly to the Defense Department.

“I’m 46 years old. What am I going to do?” said Rodriguez, a mechanical engineer at the shipyard for 23 years. “I went to college to learn what I wanted. I wake up in the morning happy to go to work because I like what I do. Our kids are in school. Our roots are here.

“As a minority, I can tell you that doors are not always open. Here we were able to have careers. We can be part of the middle class.”

In many ways Rodriguez is typical of the 4,200 civilian employees at the shipyard. The average worker is 45, has worked there 15 years and is a member of a minority group, officials said.

Nearly 60% of the work force is made up of women and minority group members.

“Southern California, L.A. County in particular, suffers from not having enough jobs for people of color and low-income people who need a leg up,” Long Beach Councilman Ray Grabinski said. “What this shipyard has is exactly what President Clinton wanted to design.”

Of the shipyard’s future, Grabinski said, “It’s not over until it’s over.”

U.S. officials said earlier this week that Aspin is targeting the Long Beach shipyard, the El Toro Marine Air Station and March Air Force Base, all in Southern California, along with six other facilities in the state. His recommendations next go to the independent Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which makes the final decision.

Long Beach has recently lost about 20,000 airspace industry jobs and faces the closure of its naval station and hospital. The shipyard’s closing would be ruinous, city and business leaders said.

“We have the double trauma of facing the closure of the naval station, which will result in $1-billion lost in revenue to the region,” said Jerry Miller, a city economic development official. With the closing of the shipyard, he said, “we’re talking about devastation.”

“This city is in trouble,” said businessman Bill Gurzi, a member of the Save our Shipyard Committee, an organization formed several years ago to meet an earlier threat.

The 50-year-old shipyard is the fourth-largest employer in Long Beach. Its an annual payroll is about $340 million, according to Miller. It distributes another $120 million a year to more than 900 subcontractors and supports 7,500 secondary jobs and $350 million in secondary spending, officials said.

Miller said it will cost the government $1.5 billion to shut down the shipyard and pay soil remediation and other costs.

Officials said the economic impact would be long-lasting.

“We have an 11.2% unemployment rate,” Miller said. “We have a lot of vacancies in our apartments. Our retail sales are down. We’re getting killed.”

“I would see it as the end of the Navy presence in Long Beach,” Mayor Ernie Kell said.

Shipyard supporters also argue that it will cost more to take the big ships that Long Beach’s drydocks can handle elsewhere for repair. The yard is often used to fix ships from San Diego.

“You still need a shipyard to handle these,” said Darrell Neft, an electrical engineer for 23 years at the shipyard and an official with the professionals and engineers union. He noted that the nearest facilities are in Bremerton, Wash. and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

In recent years the yard has reduced its work force from about 7,600 to about 4,200, its officials said. Workers said the facility has a reputation for keeping costs under budget.

“We feel betrayed by the government in general,” said Richard Jones II, a leader with the local branch of the Federal Employees Metal Trades Council, as he stood with several workers outside the gate. “They should be backing us up for good service.”

“Instead, our reward is that they’re shutting us down,” said Patricia Ray, 42, a welder from Lakewood.

The shipyard narrowly escaped a closure list two years ago. Ray and others said they were surprised by the current proposal.

“We’d all heard the rumors, but we didn’t want to believe them,” said Ray, who began working at the shipyard when she was 20. “This is all I’ve ever known.”

Times correspondent Susan Paterno contributed to this report.