BATH – Bath Iron Works, moving to reduce costs and improve efficiency, plans to lay off 137 production workers Jan. 21 in the latest round of job cuts at the shipyard.

The cuts come on top of 200 layoffs at the General Dynamics subsidiary since Oct. 1, 2003. The current work force is roughly 6,400.

Local S6 of the Machinists union relayed the layoff announcement, which was confirmed by a company spokesman. Calls to the yard seeking additional comment were not immediately returned.

The job cuts come at a time of uncertainty for BIW as it winds down production on the Navy’s Arleigh Burke class of destroyers and awaits the start of work on the successor DD(X) class, now in the design stage.

In the interim, BIW is anticipating a workload gap that could be exacerbated by Pentagon budget cuts. Those affected by the latest layoffs will include carpenters, electricians, insulators, machinists, pipe coverers, pipe fitters and tinsmiths.

Shipyard President Dugan Shipway last week circulated a bulletin warning that more jobs would be lost. Shipway said that with the future of Navy contracts up in the air, the yard will have to do more to improve its competitive position.

“I am and will be continuing to take actions to prepare BIW for an uncertain future, including some reductions in the size of the work force. I will do what is necessary … to ensure we are here whenever the Navy needs us to build ships in the future,” he wrote.

Troy Osgood, the union vice president, said cost cutting, not workload, was the reason for the latest job cuts.

“It’s always a surprise when this happens,” Osgood said. “This is really more of a budget issue than a lack-of-work issue. It’s not that there isn’t plenty of work.”

BIW has invested nearly $300 million in shipyard improvements and is continuing to refine its manufacturing processes to promote efficiency, but the short-term picture remains bleak.

Although the yard has a backlog of 11 ships, production on the last of those destroyers will begin winding down as the DD(X) program is just getting under way. Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls yard in Mississippi, Bath’s chief rival, is the lead shipyard on DD(X) and begins construction on the first one in 2007; Bath begins construction in 2009.

Even then, the shipyard is expected to be building one DD(X) per year, which is less work than today’s levels, officials say.