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Mainland bias claimed
in Pearl Harbor shipyard
hiring practices

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

A Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard union official says the Navy seems to have a bias against local workers and is interested in hiring only white males from the mainland for two critical senior management positions -- a charge flatly denied by the Navy.

At issue is an internal email that Capt. Jeffrey Conners, commander of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, sent expressing disappointment in applicants for two civilian key senior management positions -- quality assurance director and production resources manager. The message was sent to Rear Adm. William Klemm, Pacific Fleet deputy chief of staff for maintenance.

"Our strategy in staffing senior civilian positions has been to try to 'broaden the gene pool' by attracting quality civil servants from the other (ship)yards, with guarantees of return rights and 'signing bonuses if need be,' " said Conners, who has been shipyard commander since April 1998.

Conners said this tactic worked in hiring a chief design engineer for Pearl Harbor from Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia.

Ben Toyama, Western area vice president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said shipyard workers interpret Conners' statement on "broadening the gene pool" to mean that "only mainland whites are qualified for senior management positions" at Pearl Harbor.

Navy leaders, like Klemm and William Ryzewic, executive director for fleet maintenance, also indicated in later emails, "favor military officers even in other management positions over civilians at Pearl Harbor," Toyama said.

In a subsequent email Vice Adm. George Nanos Jr., overall commander of the Navy's four shipyards, said he regrets Conners' "poor choice of language," adding that it is "neither reflective of command or shipyard policy nor was it reflective of Capt. Conners' intent."

Jason Holm, Conners' spokesman, also disagrees with Toyama's assessment.

"A limited number of candidates had applied for the positions," Holm said, "and it is in the best interest of the shipyard to consider the widest available range of qualified candidates."

That is why the search for the two department heads was open to workers at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, Norfolk, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire belonging to the Naval Sea Systems Command.

Holm said he couldn't discuss the applicants, except to say that only one person applied.

Within recent months shipyard workers have been concerned that Pearl Harbor has sent more work to mainland yards and also has recruited mainland laborers for other local positions.

At a Monday Senate hearing the union told lawmakers that 1,700 people signed up for jobs that were given to mainland workers.

Toyama said after the hearing that the Navy has imported 300 workers from Puget Sound, paying an additional $172 a day to temporarily relocate in Hawaii.

Klemm said the reason seven nuclear submarines were sent to mainland yards to be refueled was not only because Pearl Harbor couldn't handle the job without hiring more people, but also to evenly distribute the work among the existing shipyards. To hire additional local workers for the refueling job would only mean that the Navy would have to let them go several years later after the work was completed, Klemm added.

Klemm said the Department of Defense has capped the number of civilians that can be hired at the Navy's four shipyards to 22,000, and the repair and maintenance work has to be balanced out among them.

Holm said that "considering a broad range of candidates does not close doors to any potential candidates -- it merely gives the shipyard the best opportunity to evaluate the widest range of quality candidates."

Holm said the shipyard workforce "ethnic profile" reflects the diversity of Hawaii's population.

But Toyama said that's not true.

"The pattern of new hires within the last six months have been from off island," Toyama said. "That has nothing to do with demographics."