Bath Iron Works will eliminate 38 more positions, on top of the 88 job cuts it announced earlier this week, as demand slows for workers such as painters, welders, sandblasters and metal preparation technicians.

The shipbuilder said the effective date of the new cuts is Oct. 12. Before then, it will try to find other jobs at the shipyard for workers whose positions are being cut, to reduce the overall number of people who are laid off.

Additional Photos

Cranes tower over Bath Iron Works on the Kennebec River waterfront. The Bath shipyard, with 5,400 employees, continues to receive contracts to build warships, but a slowing U.S. Navy production schedule has contributed to layoffs. Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

BIW, one of Maine’s largest employers, employs about 5,250 workers.

It announced Monday that 43 jobs would be cut Friday and 45 will be eliminated effective Oct. 5.

“These layoffs are the result of having to maintain a balance between the work moving through the various stages of the shipbuilding process and the skills needed to complete that work,” BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini said Friday. “A decision to lay off members of our work force is not made lightly and is done only after considerable analysis has been completed.”

The workers to be laid off are members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Local S6.

The shipyard recently won contract extensions that call for design, engineering, information technology and financial work on the DDG 1000 class of destroyers.

The DDG 1000 Zumwalt-class is the Navy’s next-generation guided-missile destroyer. The first ship of that class is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2013.

Staff Writer Jessica Hall can be contacted 791-6316 or at:

jhall@pressherald.com

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