Cutler station faces civilian layoffs> Navy cites budget shortfall

CUTLER — A trend toward what the Navy calls “right-sizing” could result in a 22-day layoff for civilian workers at the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station at Cutler.

Elmer L. Harmon, president of Local 2635, American Federation of Government Employees, reported last week that most of the station’s 80 civilian workers face a nearly month-long furlough from their jobs because of budgetary shortfalls in the current fiscal year.

Informed in December of budget shortfalls at the station totaling $1,060,000, Harmon, on behalf of the union, turned to Maine’s congressional delegation for help.

In a letter to Sen. George J. Mitchell, Harmon wrote, “If the Navy wants us to continue … then they must provide us with adequate funding.”

But as Harmon explained, the planned 22-day furloughs would not fully cover the $1.06 million needed to sustain the station’s mission of providing communications to ships and submarines in the Atlantic Fleet. Navy officials in Washington, meanwhile, are predicting that funding for the next fiscal year, beginning Oct. 1, could be even less than fiscal year 1994.

Sen. Mitchell, Sen. William S. Cohen and Congresswoman Olympia J. Snowe, responded to the union’s appeal last December by jointly signing a letter to Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton protesting any proposed cuts in civilian personnel at the station.

Dalton’s reply to the delegation, dated March 10, has heightened concerns on base that lay-offs between now and Sept. 30 — the end of the present fiscal year — are imminent.

“As you know,” wrote Dalton, “the Department of the Navy is in the process of `right-sizing’ its infrastructure to support the operating forces our nation requires.”

Dalton pointed out that NCTS Cutler was “retained” during the most recent round of base closures, while a radio facility in Maryland was shut-down because of redundancy. Cutler’s mission “will remain essentially unchanged for the foreseeable future,” he said.

The problem, according to Dalton, is a more-than $30 million budget cut in the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Command. To absorb the cut, budget reductions were ordered “among 20 essential telecommunications stations.” NCTS Cutler was one of those stations.

“Consequently, we have been forced to ask the commanders of our field activities, like NCTS Cutler,” Dalton said. “to find innovative ways to cope with the changing conditions and continue to perform their mission.”

According to Dalton, furloughs have been proposed as one way to meet the budget shortfall. “And while we are considering authorizing furlough action,” Dalton said, “we have not yet reached a decision.”

“After waiting three months, the response didn’t really say anything,” Harmon said last week. “We are where we were before we contacted the delegation for assistance.”

Harmon has again asked Sens. Mitchell and Cohen and Rep. Snowe to intervene on the union’s behalf. “The employees who work at this station deserve straight forward answers,” Harmon said. “Let us hope this is not another Loring Air Force Base — we can ill-afford that in rural Washington County.”

Earlier, Harmon predicted that if NCTS Cutler Commander Nancy Brown is forced to order a civilian reduction-in-force (RIF), “it will be necessary to curtail operations” at Cutler.