Groton, Conn. – The union for some 2,500 underwater designers in Electric Boat in Connecticut has tentatively agreed a new contract with the company, avoiding a strike that would have begun on Monday.
The Marine Association of Draftsmen of Autokers of America, local 571, essentially the workers responsible for designing the nuclear submarine of the US Navy. had threatened the strike earlier this month If the company did not make major salary and benefit concessions.
The local negotiation committee announced the tentative contract agreement on Sunday night, saying that it contains “unprecedented” salary increases of more than 30% during the period of five years, as well as a greater retirement security. The agreement now increases to vote for union members. The union officials did not say when the vote would be.
“We have been saying it all the time: the company did not want a work strike, we did not want a work strike,” said William Louis, president of Local 571, in a video published in the Social Network Sites of UNION on Sunday night. “And as we have been saying for a long time, we have been working incessantly to get to the table with the company and have something we both agree.”
Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, based in Reston, Virginia, recently received a contract worth more than $ 12.4 billion for the Navy for the construction of two Virginia class submarines. Financing also covers an improved salary for workers, including the Marines Draft Association.
“This package recognizes the essential role of the members of the MDA in the production of submarines for the US Navy,” said Electric Boat in a joint statement of the Union.
The union contract expired on April 4, but the leadership had agreed to continue negotiating with EB.
Electric Boat uses more than 23,000 people in its shipyard in Groton, Connecticut, engineering facilities in New London, Connecticut, and operations in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.
The company said that its previous offer included a general salary increase of 23.3% during contract life, plus benefits and a higher retirement package.
