The Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO believes it is past time for the U.S. Navy to implement the Bartlett Maritime Corporation’s Bartlett Maritime Plan, which is proposal for a ship component overhaul, repair, remanufacturing and testing facility in Lorain, and we agree.
Bartlett Maritime Corporation recently revealed new details of its plan that, if approved, would provide the Navy with a boost to preparing its fleet.
The Bartlett Maritime Plan includes a rotatable pool and material stocking and kitting facility for the construction of ship components and equipment in Lordstown, and calls for a supporting component repair center located in a publicly unspecified location.
James Hart, president of the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO, believes the Bartlett Maritime Plan is the innovative, actionable solution the Navy needs to address its ongoing shipbuilding backlog, capacity and capability.
And as the collective bargaining representative for the skilled shipbuilders at the four current U.S. Naval shipbuilding and repair yards, Hart and the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO wholeheartedly support the Bartlett Maritime Plan and see it as an opportunity to support the Navy’s shipbuilding goals and bring good-paying, family-sustaining, skilled, union jobs to Lorain and Lordstown.
The Bartlett Maritime Plan offers the option to provide the Navy with a fifth naval shipyard, once the component repair center facilities are established and the funding and oversight regimes are proven.
The Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO has hopes that this new, advanced design shipyard is site-ready at the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek, S.C., near Charleston, with construction beginning as early as 2024.
From the beginning, the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO has backed the Bartlett Maritime Plan because it’s considered the critical next step the Navy must take to address its capacity and capability issues.
Hart believes that if the government does not act with a sense of urgency to address the current shipbuilding crisis, it could risk the nation’s security during an increasingly precarious time.
And of course, the Bartlett Maritime Plan has the support of Lorain officials who back the idea of bringing a shipyard to the International City.
Probably the biggest supporter of the Bartlett Maritime Plan is Mayor Jack Bradley, who has been instrumental in rallying for the project since the idea was brought to the city.
City Council also has issued its support through legislation.
The endorsement of the Bartlett Maritime Plan didn’t just come from local officials.
On May 2, 2022, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Tim Ryan joined labor leaders at Black River Landing in downtown Lorain for the Marine Highway National Security Ohio Job Rally to support the proposed shipyard.
At that time, the officials said the Navy wasn’t keeping up the maintenance of its fleet ships and submarines, and experts believed it was creating a risk to national security.
The addition of the shipyard in Lorain and repair facility in Lordstown would help the Navy get more of its fleet back out to sea quicker.
The project also would bring back good-paying labor jobs to two communities that have suffered as those jobs, especially in the steel industry, have been exported overseas.
Combined, the facilities in Lorain and Lordstown could create up to 4,000 permanent jobs and up to 40,000 construction jobs.
Although a relatively new business, the Bartlett Maritime Corporation was incorporated on Feb. 22, 2019, for the purpose of supporting and assisting the U.S. Navy in the resolution of the capacity and capability shortfall in the submarine industrial base supporting both new submarine construction and commissioned submarine maintenance.
The Bartlett Maritime Plan was developed after a report by the General Accountability Office found that since 2012, two-thirds of the Navy’s ship and submarine availabilities have been completed behind schedule leading to tens of thousands of lost operational and training delays.
Industry experts believe those delays cause national security risks and have negatively impacted troop morale.
So, in early 2022, Edward L. Bartlett Jr., president of Bartlett Maritime Corp., devised the idea of Navy repair shipyards in Lorain and Lordstown.
Bartlett has worked with federal officials to implement the plan.
If the plan is approved, Hart and others believe the maritime activity would increase dramatically in the Great Lakes region.
Hart also envisions the plan reestablishing marine highways filled with barges and tugs moving parts through the Great Lakes and up and down the rivers that feed those lakes.
So, we agree with the Metal Trades Department, AFL-CIO that it’s long over due for the Navy to implement the Bartlett Maritime Plan, for new jobs and improved shipbuilding capabilities.
