First of its Kind Labor-Management Collaboration Brings Back Major Shipyard from the Brink of Extinction

The Metal Trades Department (MTD), AFL-CIO President James Hart announced today that Philly Shipyard, Inc., had been awarded a contract for the construction of up to five (5) National Security Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMV) from TOTE Services, LLC.
MTD President James Hart said, “the MTD and its affiliated international unions had one objective and that was to open the shipyard and put the 1200 workers back to work. I cannot thank our industry partner, the White House, and Congress enough for their hard work and assistance in bringing this yard back to life.”
“I firmly believe that the MTD and its affiliates are the first unions to restore a shuttered shipyard to prominence within one year. Had we not been successful, the United States would have lost another major shipyard that would have further weakened our national security, not to mention good middle-class jobs, at a time when America needs to get back to work.”
The Metal Trades Department is a trade department of the AFL-CIO which was chartered in 1908 to coordinate negotiating, organizing and legislative efforts of affiliated metalworking and related crafts and trade unions. Seventeen national and international unions are affiliated with the MTD today. More than 100,000 workers in private industry and federal establishments work under contracts negotiated by MTD Councils wehre workers, such as the thousands of sheet metal workers at America’s shipyards and military installations, retain membership in their own trade unions.

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