Overview
- Bath Marine Draftsmen's Association members, who began a strike Monday after rejecting Bath Iron Works' offer, include 627 designers, technicians and clerks now picketing around the clock.
- Bath Iron Works presented a new four-year proposal Monday night with raises of 10.5% in year one followed by 5% each year, which it says would lift total pay about 28%.
- The company says the plan would keep flexible schedules and remote work, cap health insurance premium increases at 5.75%, and raise top-scale designer base pay to more than $95,000 by the end of the deal.
- Union leaders say wages trail national norms, health costs would climb through higher deductibles and out-of-pocket limits, and retirement benefits need to provide more security.
- The yard, which has a multiyear contract to build Arleigh Burke–class destroyers, says it will keep work going with managers, subcontractors and other staff as talks continue, and any production impact remains unclear.