Bartlett Maritime Founder and CEO Edward L. Bartlett, Jr., left, and IP Warren Fairley sign the agreement.
Bartlett Maritime Corporation and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) have entered a national labor agreement to help build a rotational workforce of skilled welders in support of Navy shipbuilding and repair projects nationwide. Read this recent news coverage from Cleveland ABC News 5.
The IBB and BMC held a signing ceremony to mark the agreement at the company’s Cleveland offices today.
“This agreement that we are signing today makes it possible for members of the construction sector of the Boilermakers union to easily take assignments in the Navy’s shipbuilding industrial base,” said Bartlett Maritime Founder and CEO Edward L. Bartlett, Jr. “It both immediately expands union employment opportunities and adds a vast new labor pool to the Navy shipbuilding industry.”
The agreement allows Bartlett Maritime to recruit from the Boilermakers construction sector members across the country. It also allows BMC to deploy these personnel to any location nationwide with only the negotiation of a local addendum.
“This is innovative,” said IBB International President Warren Fairley. “It’s always a battle in times when unemployment is low to find enough people to build the ships we need to supply the Navy.”
Fairley explained that the construction industry is seasonal, so construction Boilermakers have periodic down time.
“This agreement is an incredible opportunity for those people,” Fairley said. “This fills in those gaps.”
According to Navy estimates, America’s submarine industrial base requires the addition of more than 140,000 new skilled laborers during the next ten years. Last month, BMC was awarded an initial $3 million contract to begin providing a rotational workforce of skilled laborers in support of Navy shipbuilding and repair projects.
“With this agreement, everyone wins. More union job opportunities. More highly qualified skilled tradespeople to support urgent national security requirements,” said Bartlett.
“This is an example of how a company and organized labor can work together to achieve great things for all parties – and for our nation’s security.”
The rotational shipyard workforce concept is the first part of Bartlett Maritime’s comprehensive proposal to add capacity and capability to America’s submarine industrial base. BMC has also proposed to construct and operate component repair facilities in northeast Ohio with an option to build a new public naval shipyard in Charleston, S.C.
