THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9412160562
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. has cut the pay of 1,800 of its salaried workers.
In a letter from Vice President Tom Schievelbein dated Dec. 12, the yard announced it would eliminate the overtime it had paid to about 1,100 workers and the 7 percent night-shift premiums it had paid to about 700 workers.
The cuts, effective the first of the year, will save the company $5 million to $10 million annually, spokesman Mike Hatfield said.
The changes, which also include giving some workers merit raises and incentive pay, could eventually affect all 7,500 salaried workers at the yard, Hatfield said. The cuts are necessary if the yard wants to survive the reduction in defense spending that will force it to slice its work force from about 20,000 to between 14,000 and 15,000 by the end of 1996, executives say.
It's the second round of cuts some salaried workers received this year. In February, the yard took back two paid holidays, cut the maximum amount of vacation time available and stripped 3,200 workers of all three of their personal days.
And it may not be the last.
This week's announcement comes little more than a month after the yard and its largest union, which represents 12,300 blue-collar workers, began negotiating a new labor contract. The pact expires Feb. 5. by CNB