Navy mulls Pearl
ship repair merger

Metal Trades Council sees the
project as a union-busting move

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The Navy is considering a two-year pilot project merging two shipyard maintenance operations at Pearl Harbor, amid charges of union busting at the state's largest industrial employer.

The plan is to reorganize the Navy's fleet maintenance and repair activities at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard by merging it next May with the Naval Intermediate Maintenance Facility.

Last year, the combined payroll was $272.9 million: $195 million for the shipyard and $77.9 million for the maintenance facility.

Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, Pacific Fleet spokesman, said the pilot project's purpose "is to try to maximize the efficiency of the two operations."

But Ben Toyama, spokesman for the 2,700-member Metal Trades Council at the shipyard, said officials at Pacific Fleet, which will oversee activities of the restructured operation, have a different agenda.

Throughout negotiations earlier this year, it was the position of Rear Adm. James Taylor, Pacific Fleet maintenance officer, "that the Navy didn't need the union," Toyama said.

"Fleet was out to get rid of the union because it was too difficult for them," the union official said.

Toyama said the Navy wanted to be able to cut the labor force at the shipyard and the nearby maintenance facility without outside interference.

The Navy disputes Toyama's statement. Through a spokesman, Taylor said he always valued the role unions played when working with them at mainland shipyards.

Wensing, who said he sat in several working groups with union members earlier this year, said this is the first negative reaction he's heard.

"The union is a significant part of the shipyard. We are seeking, as we have in the past, to work with the union," he said.

Nearly 2,800 civilians are employed at the shipyard and an additional 625 are on the payroll of the maintenance facilities. Employment at the shipyard, which in 1983 peaked at 7,133, has been declining steadily in recent years.

Toyama said congressional language authorizing the pilot project prohibits the Navy from making any changes in the civilian labor force of both operations.

The number of military personnel will drop to 750 from the current force of nearly 1,000.

If the Pearl Harbor experiment is successful, the proposal may be expanded to shipyards in Washington, New Hampshire and Virginia, Toyama said.

It was just two years ago that the Navy reorganized its intermediate maintenance facility by combining submarine and surface ship repair operations under one command in a new two-story building on Kuahua peninsula about a mile from the shipyard.

It was to be a prototype for seven similar operations on the mainland and in Japan.