Bath Iron Works signed a new three-year contract with its International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local S7 union on Sunday.
The new contract, which took effect Monday morning, holds “numerous improvements to wages and benefits over the life of the contract” for the union’s roughly 200 members, according to a statement from the company.
The union represents the shipyard’s clerical and administrative workers.
According to a statement from the Maine AFL-CIO, which oversees BIW’s Locals S6 and S7 unions, the new contract includes 3% pay raises each year for the duration of the contract. Union members will also see an increase in accident and sickness benefits from $250 a week to 50% of a member’s gross pay and an increase to $72,000 a year for members who reach the high end of the pay scale.
“The success of these negotiations was due in large part to the hard work and dedication of the Local S7 negotiating committee, the solidarity of the hardworking members of Local S7, and the support and leadership from Machinists District 4,” Local S7 President Jessica Chubbuck-Goodwin wrote in a statement released Monday.
“We are pleased the members of IAM Local S7 have voted to ratify this three-year contract following unanimous endorsement by the bargaining committees for the union and BIW,” the company wrote in a statement released Sunday. “The three-year agreement, which includes several enhancements, will help us move forward together to meet our schedule commitments to the U.S. Navy.”
The Maine AFL-CIO wrote Local S7’s contract bargaining team credited Local S6’s nine-week strike last summer for the willingness of BIW management to quickly negotiate a fair contract with Local S7 members.
Since that strike, which took over 4,000 BIW machinists out of work for over two months, ended in August 2020, the company and Local S6 leadership have been working together to recover from significant production delays, worsened by the strike and COVID-19 pandemic.
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