General Dynamics Electric Boat and the leadership of the shipyard’s approximately 2,500-member white-collar draftsman union came to a tentative agreement Sunday night, preventing a strike at the shipyards that produce submarines for the U.S. Navy.
The contract agreement now goes to the membership Marine Draftman’s Association-United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America Local 571 to ratify before it is official.
Under the tentative agreement, Electric Boat will give wage increases of 30.6 percent compounded over the contract’s lifetime, Brandon Mancilla, the UAW director for region nine, which covers Local 571, said in a Sunday night bargaining update.
Part of the wage increases includes new pay steps for those who have been with the company for at least 20 years, Bill Louis, Local 571 president, said during the update.
The contract also includes supplemental retirement security for all members, Mancilla said.
The contract will last five years, according to a joint statement from Electric Boat and Local 571.
“The bargaining committees worked diligently to find common areas of interest that resulted in wage and benefits enhancements that positively impact employees’ quality of life, and achieve fair and equitable results,” reads the statement. “This package recognizes the essential role of the MDA members in the production of submarines for the U.S. Navy.”
Over the next few days, the union will hold town halls to present the tentative agreement to its membership, allowing them to vote for the agreement, Mancilla said
“In the UAW, the members are the highest authority,” he said. “That means a contract only gets ratified if a majority votes for it.”
Had the union and Electric Boat not reached an agreement Sunday night, the union would have begun a strike, which was previously authorized, USNI News reported.
About 90 percent of the union prepared to strike with people signing up for the picket line, Mancilla said.
Neither the company nor the union wanted a strike, Louis said.
“It’s been a long road,” Louis said. “It’s been a very difficult road. It’s probably been the hardest negotiations that we’ve been through, at least in my time, from what I’ve seen personally.”
The tentative agreement comes as naval shipbuilding labor costs have risen 20 to 30 percent following the COVID-19 pandemic and a parallel rise in pay for service industry workers.
Last month, the Navy awarded EB and HII Newport News Shipbuilding an $18.5 billion contract for two new submarines and workforce development, USNI News reported.
