Bartlett Maritime Corporation and AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department Announce Cooperation
Bartlett Maritime Corporation is pleased to announce that the company and the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO (MTD) have signed a Plan of Cooperation in Support of Implementing The Bartlett Maritime Plan™. In addition, Lordstown and Lorain Ohio are revealed as the plan facility site locations.
Over the last decade the nation’s 4 Naval Shipyards have been unable to complete the required maintenance on the US Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines, with an average, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis, of more than 0.6 aircraft carriers and more than 3.4 submarines always unexpectedly sidelined in delayed maintenance. [1] GAO and other third-party entities such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Navy itself, and the Heritage Foundation have extensively documented this current US Navy aircraft carrier and submarine maintenance crisis. This crisis is described in more detail, with extensive reference to these third-party analyses, on our website.
In response, Bartlett Maritime Corporation has developed its immediately actionable, cost-effective public-private-partnership proposal – The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ – to add the required capacity and capability to the Naval Shipyard industrial enterprise. In preparation for executing this public-private-partnership, Bartlett Maritime Corporation and the Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, which has represented the vast majority of shipyard skilled trades personnel in the United States since 1908, have developed and reached agreement on a Plan of Cooperation in Support of Implementing the Bartlett Maritime Plan™. Under the terms of the Plan of Cooperation, the company has agreed to work cooperatively with union leadership and to provide full access to union personnel in support of organizing the shipyard skilled trades personnel employed by Bartlett Maritime Corporation and its subsidiaries. The Metal Trades Department has agreed to work cooperatively with the company and to fully support implementing The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ while providing advice in planning and executing the company’s workforce development plan.
During the AFL-CIO endorsement meeting, it was revealed that the Bartlett Maritime Plan™ includes building and operating a new submarine-focused Naval Shipyard in Lorain, OH, and a new Naval Equipment Depot in Lordstown, OH.
Ohio has a long, proud maritime tradition, with parts of every US Navy submarine being manufactured in the area. The American Ship Building Company, once the largest shipyard on the Great Lakes and builder of 13 of the 1,000 ft Class Great Lakes ore carriers, operated in Lorain from 1898 through 1984. The names American Naval Shipyard, Lorain, and American Naval Depot, Lordstown, pay homage to the region’s long maritime heritage. An overview of the Bartlett Maritime Plan™ is provided here.
CAPT Edward L. Bartlett, Jr., Bartlett Maritime Corporation Founder, commenting on the Plan of Cooperation, noted, “The most successful shipyards in the United States all feature a cooperative and collaborative relationship between management and the shipyard’s unions. As we advance our efforts to build our new facilities and to hire and train a new workforce, we have elected to be proactive and to initiate this Plan of Cooperation with the national leadership of the shipyard labor unions to both assist us in our advanced workforce development plan efforts and to establish the foundation for a future cooperative and collaborative relationship between management and our shipyard skilled trades unions. We are pleased to be working cooperatively with Mr. James Hart, President of the Metal Trades Department, and his staff, moving forward.”
In a separate Metal Trades Department AFL-CIO Press Release, which is attached here for easy reference, the following statements were provided by MTD President Hart:
“The Metal Trades Department and its affiliated international unions are proud to join Bartlett Maritime in its efforts to become the next public-private U.S. Navy maintenance and repair shipyard," said MTD President James Hart. "We look forward to this partnership and the impact it will have on creating and sustaining good, unionized jobs in Ohio."
"Bartlett Maritime is filling a void in Naval shipbuilding and repair," said Hart. "The Bartlett plan is feasible, actionable, and affordable. It complements our existing Naval shipyards and nuclear build yards. The Metal Trades and its Executive Council intend to put its full and substantial support behind this plan."
The Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO (MTD), and the Bartlett Maritime Corporation have signed a cooperation agreement supporting the implementation of the Bartlett Maritime Plan.
This historic labor-management partnership agreement lays the foundation for Bartlett Maritime Corporation and its subsidiary, American Naval Shipyard, LLC, to become the U.S. Navy's newest, privately owned maintenance and repair shipyard. The Metal Trades Department's partnership with Bartlett will provide the company with support to promote the Bartlett Maritime Plan™ and to ramp up hiring and training the new workforce at the company's Ohio shipyard.
"The Metal Trades Department and its affiliated international unions are proud to join Bartlett Maritime in its efforts to become the next public-private U.S. Navy maintenance and repair shipyard," said MTD President James Hart. "We look forward to this partnership and the impact it will have on creating and sustaining good, unionized jobs in Ohio."
The Bartlett Maritime Plan™ is a public-private-partnership (P3) that will provide the U.S. Navy with new ship maintenance capacity and capability while accessing an entirely new labor pool to staff this new endeavor. Bartlett Maritime has two VPM-Virginia-capable drydocks in a fully enclosed drydock production facility and a new equipment depot to maintain and repair key ship components and equipment.
Bartlett's plan, once implemented, will result in annual savings for the U.S. Navy of more than $100 million per year while creating more than 41,000 jobs.
The Metal Trades Department (MTD) is a trade department of the AFL-CIO. It was chartered in 1908 to coordinate negotiating, organizing, and legislative efforts of affiliated metal working and related crafts and trade unions. Seventeen national and international unions are affiliated with the MTD today. More than 100,000 workers in private industry and federal establishments work under contracts negotiated by the more than 30 MTD Councils in North America. Under the umbrella of the Metal Trades, workers retain membership in their own trade union.