Union promotes shipbuilding project that would bring jobs to Lordstown
The Metal Trades Department of the AFL-CIO is supporting a plan put forth by the Bartlett Maritime Corporation which would bring, according to the company, thousands of jobs to Lordstown in the interest of modernizing and maintaining portions of the US Navy fleet.
“The Bartlett Maritime Plan is the innovative, actionable solution the U.S. Navy needs to address its ongoing shipbuilding backlog, capacity, and capability,” said James Hart, president of the Metal Trades Department at the AFL-CIO. "We wholeheartedly support this plan and see it as an opportunity to support the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding goals and bring good-paying, family-sustaining, skilled, union jobs to the Lorain and Lordstown, Ohio, communities.”
The Bartlett Maritime Plan, which was touted in 2022 by Ohio and valley lawmakers, seeks to address what Bartlett Maritime Corporation ("Bartlett) calls a "pernicious National Security crisis."
The crisis in question? According to Bartlett's release detailing the specifics of their plan, over a third of the US's nuclear submarine force are unavailable for operation due to long-term maintenance.
Their plan seeks to help the navy modernize its materials, manufacture and update ship components, and test its equipment. Two of the facilities they propose using to those ends are slated for Lorain, Ohio and another well known manufacturing center in the state: Lordstown.
The Lordstown facility, called a Component Repair Center, would be used to store equipment in a pool system, which could be tapped when replacements are necessary and be refilled through the remanufacture and repair of out-of-date or broken components. The construction of such a facility is estimated to employ about 2,000 workers, and the facility itself could employ as many as 4,000 in Lordstown, which would make it one of the valley's largest employers.
At this point, Bartlett's plan is just that - a plan. There is no timeline for when the plan would be adopted, let alone when construction on the projects would take place or facilities would open.
