White-Collar Workers Strike at Bath Iron Works, Ratify New Four-Year Contract

BATH, Maine —

Just after dawn on a raw March morning, the people pacing outside the main gate of Bath Iron Works were not the welders and pipefitters who usually anchor picket lines at this shipyard. They were designers, planners and technicians — the white-collar employees who turn Navy requirements into drawings, schedules and test reports for some of the service’s most important warships.

Behind them, the gray hull of a future guided-missile destroyer loomed over the Kennebec River. For much of the past week, work on that and other ships continued under a cloud, as more than 600 of the shipyard’s technical staff staged a rare white-collar strike in the middle of an expanding U.S. war in Iran.

The walkout by members of the Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association, UAW Local 3999, began just after midnight Monday, March 23, after union members rejected what the company had called its “best and final” contract offer. It ended Saturday, March 28, when workers voted to ratify a new four-year agreement and returned to work.

The strike, which lasted about a week, did not shut down production at Bath Iron Works, a General Dynamics subsidiary that builds Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. But it highlighted growing tensions over pay and benefits inside the defense industrial base and underscored the leverage that specialized white-collar workers can wield at a critical shipyard during wartime.

“We felt we had to stand up for fair wages, affordable health care and retirement security,” said Trent Vellella, president of the draftsmen’s association, in an interview with local television station WABI at the start of the strike. He said workers had hoped the company “took to heart the statements made by Secretary Hegseth” during a February visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urging support for the workforce.

Union leaders said members have struggled to keep pace with rising housing and living costs along Maine’s midcoast, even as Bath Iron Works and its parent company have benefited from steady Navy contracts and strong defense spending.

The company’s initial proposal, which members voted down the weekend of March 21–22, offered what Bath Iron Works described as “historic annual wage increases.” The four-year package called for a 10.1% raise in the first year, followed by 4% increases in each of the next three years — roughly 24% compounded over the life of the deal. Management also pointed to health insurance premiums it said were “significantly below market,” and pledged to preserve flexible work arrangements, including work-from-home options, a flexible workweek and a vacation purchase program.

The union countered that the offer fell short, saying wages for designers, associate engineers, technicians and other members lag national averages for comparable work and did not keep up with regional costs. Workers also cited out-of-pocket health costs and concerns about long-term retirement income.

“Many of our members are living paycheck to paycheck,” union representatives told local media during the strike, arguing that General Dynamics could afford to do more given its profitability and shareholder payouts in recent years.

Bath Iron Works employs about 6,800 people, according to company figures. The draftsmen’s association represents roughly 627 white-collar production support workers whose duties range from creating detailed ship designs and production plans to performing nondestructive testing and maintaining technical documentation.

While the yard’s much larger blue-collar workforce — represented by Machinists Union Local S6 — has gone on strike before, including a high-profile 63-day walkout in 2020, a strike by the technical unit is less common and drew wide attention in Maine and in Washington.

Company officials said throughout the dispute that shipbuilding would continue. In a statement posted online after the walkout began, Bath Iron Works said it would use other salaried personnel, subcontractors and employees who chose to report to work to maintain operations. The company declined to say whether the strike slowed production or affected schedules for Navy destroyers under construction.

The U.S. Navy also did not publicly detail any impact from the one-week work stoppage. The strike came as the Pentagon has pressed shipyards to increase output to support an intensified U.S. military campaign in Iran and broader demands on the fleet.

Bath Iron Works is one of only a small number of U.S. shipyards capable of building large surface combatants. It shares Arleigh Burke-class construction with a yard in Mississippi and has a multiyear Navy contract for several destroyers, part of a procurement approach designed to stabilize work and prices across the industrial base.

The Arleigh Burke class, with its Aegis combat system and missile batteries, is frequently described by Navy leaders as the “backbone” of the service’s surface fleet. The yard in Bath recently delivered the future USS Harvey C. Barnum Jr. (DDG-124), and additional hulls are under construction along the Kennebec.

On Saturday, after nearly a week of picketing, members of the draftsmen’s association gathered at a local high school for an hourslong meeting to review a revised offer. By that evening, the union announced that members had voted to ratify a new four-year contract and that the strike was over.

The union did not release specific economic terms of the agreement. In a statement, local leaders said only that the contract included improvements and “a better contract foundation for the next negotiation.” They said the experience had built “an engaged and motivated membership” that would carry lessons into future bargaining and any organizing campaigns.

Bath Iron Works welcomed the vote.

“We look forward to working together once again to deliver the Navy’s ships on time to protect our nation and our families,” the company said in a statement provided to media outlets.

The Maine AFL-CIO, which had backed the draftsmen’s association and confirmed the ratification vote, described the settlement as a sign that white-collar workers in the defense sector can use traditional labor tactics to negotiate over how the benefits of increased military spending are shared.

Labor experts say the strike at Bath Iron Works fits into a broader trend of organizing and work stoppages among professional and technical workers. In recent years, the United Auto Workers has expanded its reach beyond auto plants into universities, laboratories and other white-collar workplaces, and has taken a more aggressive posture in contract talks nationally.

At Bath, the latest walkout also adds to a pattern of labor unrest at a shipyard central to Navy plans. The 2020 strike by Local S6 — the yard’s main production unit, representing about 4,300 workers — stretched for more than two months and centered on subcontracting, work rules and seniority. A major strike in 2000 lasted 55 days. In each case, disputes over how to manage backlogs and meet Navy schedules were intertwined with questions of pay, job security and working conditions.

The recurring conflicts raise questions for the Navy and Congress about how to factor labor stability into long-term shipbuilding plans. Repeated disruptions at a limited number of specialized yards pose a potential risk for programs that are already under schedule and budget pressure, analysts say, even when individual strikes are relatively short.

For Bath and surrounding communities, where the shipyard is one of the largest private employers and an economic linchpin, the latest strike was another reminder of how closely local fortunes are tied to a single industrial employer.

During the weeklong walkout, other unions and community members joined the picket line. Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner appeared at the gate to express support for the workers’ demands for “fair wages, affordable healthcare, and retirement security,” according to local news reports.

By Monday morning, March 30, the picket signs were gone. Employees in BIW badges streamed through the turnstiles back to offices and test labs, as welders and fitters resumed their shifts in the sprawling shops and dry docks along the river. The destroyer hull that had stood as a backdrop to the strike still dominated the skyline, inching toward completion under a new contract that both sides say will hold for four years — and under the shadow of another war that is keeping demand for such ships high.