Bath shipyard to lay off 200 workers next month

BATH – Bath Iron Works will lay off around 200 union workers effective Dec. 4, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

The shipyard remains busy but has a lack of work in some areas including the pipefitting department, said shipyard spokeswoman Susan Pierter.

The workers belong to the Machinists Union, which concluded an eight-week strike by nearly 5,000 workers less than a month ago. The new contract, unlike the last two pacts, does not contain no-layoff provisions.

The layoffs were not a total surprise to the Machinists Union. There was talk of potential layoffs during the strike.

Such layoffs are not unusual in the shipbuilding industry. Last summer, about 180 workers were laid off from Bath Iron Works, but they did not belong to the Machinists Union.