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5 December, 2011
Some 6,000 members of the Pascagoula Metal Trades Council – four US union organisations – have an early three-year contract extension with shipbuilder Huntington Ingalls Industries at work-yards in the state of Mississippi. That came off because of a 60% ratification vote by unionised workers on 1 December.
Huntington Ingalls, a spin-off of major US defense contractor Northrup Grumman, builds and maintains the US Navy’s surface combatant fleet at Pascagoula, a coastal city on the Gulf of Mexico.
The agreement covers workers who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers (IAM), the Office Professional Employees Union (OPEIU), and a security workers’ union, and comes four months before the March 2012 expiry of the current agreement.
Journeymen workers will see a US$.60-per-hour rise in their base wage on 9 January 2013, with another US$.60 coming a short two months later on 11 March. Effective 10 March 2014, a US$.70-per-hour increase will occur.
Workers will receive a one-off US$1,000 payment early in 2012 to forego a 2012 cost-of-living adjustment but the COLA will return in the other years. Workers will absorb some increases in their health care insurance coverage in the new pact.
Huntington Ingalls is a major contractor to the US Navy and Coast Guard and besides Pascagoula, where it is responsible for 70% of US surface fleet, it operates the Newport News, Virginia, shipyards, where it builds both nuclear and non-nuclear ships and submarines for the US government. It also controls AMSEC LLD and Continental Maritime of San Diego (CMSD).
Huntington Ingalls is currently partnering in Newport News with French nuclear specialist Areva in building a US$360 million facility for construction of heavy components used in nuclear reactors.