The Coast Guard has awarded Eastern Shipbuilders of Florida the contract for the first of its new offshore cutters, which is bad news for Bath Iron Works and its workers.
Eastern Shipyards beat out BIW and a Louisiana shipyard for the contract to build the first of what is expected to be 25 new cutters to replace the aging Coast Guard fleet. Maine’s congressional delegation lobbied hard for BIW, but analysts had said BIW’s higher costs, mostly for energy, could play into the decision.
BIW president Fred Harris said in January 2015 that as many as 1,200 manufacturing workers at the yard — about 35 percent of its workforce — could be laid off if BIW did not win the contract.
