Posted on 09/03/2019 10:29:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The Bath shipyard has contracts to build 11 new DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers for the Navy over the next eight years.
Bath Iron Works is known for building Navy warships from the ground up, but if it wants to stay in business it has to do the same to its workforce.
The shipyard is in the midst of a massive hiring push to finish a backlog of ship work and reinforce its army of mechanics, many of whom are nearing retirement age.
With Maine’s historically low 3 percent unemployment rate and a statewide skilled labor shortage, BIW can’t afford to be picky – it is investing heavily to recruit hundreds of workers, even those with no relevant experience, and train them in-house.
“It is definitely reflective of the labor market as it stands today,” said BIW Human Resources Director Jon Mason. “Ten years ago, I could post a requisition and get a lot of applications; these days we have to approach it a little differently.”
(Excerpt) Read more at timesrecord.com ...
I guess that is why Maine had to import all those Somalis.
College kids don’t want to work that hard. Ship building (warships) ain’t for sissies. A good training program, hard work, learning to weld, or being a millwright could give a youngster a great start. A good vocational training wouldn’t leave a youngster in six figure debt either. IMO
The Somali importation was the work of RAT governor John Baldacci, who was governor about 20 - 25 years ago.
Most of them are in the Lewiston - Auburn area, some in Portland. Personally, I’ve never seen one.
The land of Joshua Chamberlain must surely have some hard-working, decent people.
>>I guess that is why Maine had to import all those Somalis.
Luckily they are all pretty much concentrated in the hell-hole known as Lewiston (and the spike in crime confirms it) .. the rest of Maine, not so much. Maine is still the ‘whitest’ state in the country.
When I was a kid, my father would tell me if I learned to weld I would always have a job. Then my grandfather would tell me I should use my brains and not my brawn if I wanted a job.
Are there a lot of somali ship builders, millwrights and welders?
My father worked at BIW prior to joining the Navy during WWII.
I am in the ship repair business. I won’t say that this isn’t about additional Navy construction, but I will tell you that the average age of our core employees is about 60 years old. I’m not kidding. We’ve speculated that all things being equal the U.S. maritime industry will be dead within 20 years. Young people are not replacing the old. We are already experiencing a severe knowledge gap due to our employees retiring or dying.
Not a whole lot better in aircraft maintenance. All of us Reagan years former military will be retiring soon.
Maybe Filipinos will.
It may be the whitest state in the country but the huge amounts of somali children loading the school systems in LA and Portland portends that they will become a force to reckon with.
Sure, they're just old. Maine has the oldest population, per capita, of any state. They have more people over 65 than under 18.
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