Workers Rally to Keep Shipyard Open : Navy: Gov. Wilson and thousands of employees urge base closure commission to spare Mare Island facility.

Thousands of Mare Island Naval Shipyard workers rallied Saturday in a bid to keep the facility open and save their jobs while Base Closure Commission members toured installations in advance of hearings on their fate.

“This base is a vital military asset for America,” Gov. Pete Wilson told thousands of cheering employees at the shipyard, one of the biggest bases targeted in the San Francisco Bay Area.

An estimated 32,000 jobs in the region are on the line, but those fighting to keep installations open said their arguments are based on military justification, not economic problems.

“Keeping Mare Island (Naval Shipyard) open is the right thing to do for California and the right thing to do for America,” Wilson said in Vallejo. He maintained that closing the nuclear service installation would leave a gap in defense.

The governor spoke before joining three members of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, who were touring regional bases before beginning hearings today in Oakland.

Other bases on the list of proposed closings are Treasure Island, Alameda Naval Air Station, the Oakland Naval Supply Center and Naval Hospital, the Presidio in Monterey and McClellan Air Force Base outside Sacramento.

At Alameda Naval Air Station, commission Chairman Jim Courter emphasized that his panel has not made a final decision on any base targeted for closure.

“We’re here to listen to the community concerns, to make sure they have a seat at the table, a fair day in court,” Courter said.

The commission members were accompanied on a tour of the base by Wilson and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who said the closures would have the “deepest and most profound impact” on the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I’m one who believes very deeply that this whole round of base closures is very ill-advised,” Feinstein said.

Saturday’s tour prompted rallies across the region, with politicians promising to fight hard for survival.

“I am here to say simply, it isn’t over until it’s over,” Feinstein told 4,000 Mare Island employees who rallied on Vallejo’s waterfront.

The full base closure commission will vote in June on the fate of 31 installations nationwide. It will make its recommendation July 1 to President Clinton, who has 45 days to accept or reject the entire list. Congress will then make the same all-or-nothing choice.

In Vallejo, Mare Island workers have been rallying for survival for months. On Saturday, most wore yellow T-shirts printed with their slogan of “Support Our Shipyard,” and the rally had a block party feel with the smell of sea air and roasting hot dogs filling the air.

Ocean engineer Mike Craig and his wife, Barbara, went a step further than most, outfitting their golden retriever with a yellow coat declaring support for the shipyard.

“I really do think Mare Island has a chance if everybody pushes hard enough,” Craig said.

Wilson said closing Mare Island would send Solano County’s unemployment rate soaring to nearly 23%, but he added that the important argument is that “closing Mare Island is wrong for America’s national security.”