Nassco/General Dynamics Corp., among the biggest employers in the region, said July 12 that it cut a total of 560 jobs due to downturns in contracts from its government and commercial customers.
The layoffs of 290 direct employees and 270 subcontractors have been taking place since May when the company, a unit of Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp., first announced potential layoffs of up to 900 employees.
“We’re still experiencing a downturn in the commercial and government shipbuilding market that we specialize in,” said Karl Johnson, Nassco spokesman.
Those given pink slips are mainly production workers and include welders, painters, sheet metal workers and pipefitters.
After the layoffs are completed this week, Nassco said it will have 3,700 direct employees and 270 subcontractors at the bay front site south of the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.
Nassco is on track to deliver its 10th cargo ship to the U.S. Navy this week. The contract calls for four more of this class of ships known as T-AKE.
The ships deliver ammunition and provisions to other Navy vessels and installations.
The company also has a contract with American Petroleum Tankers for commercial chemical tankers that initially called for nine ships, but that has been reduced to five. The last of the series is scheduled to be delivered by the end of this year, Johnson said.
Despite a surge in activity at the last major shipyard on the West Coast in recent years, employment has not returned to the peak levels where it was in the early 1980s when about 9,800 workers were at the site. It dropped to a low of about 2,000 in the late 1980s. Earlier this year, the total direct employment was about 4,100.
— Mike Allen
