Word: shipyarders
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...dark suit moves and speaks like the polished trial lawyer he once was. In the dank humidity of an auditorium in the Massachusetts State House, he makes his case insistently, weaving numbers and exposition into a seamless argument. In the future, he says, 60% of the U.S. Navy's shipyard work will involve nuclear-powered vessels. More than half the ships in for repair will be submarines; most of those will be Los Angeles- class attack submarines. "The most experienced shipyard in servicing Los Angeles subs," he declaims, "is the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Charleston has never overhauled a Los Angeles...
...Hampshire, defense advocate in action. This is the majority leader of the U.S. Senate, George Mitchell of next-door Maine. In rows of seats in the auditorium behind him are the entire congressional delegations of Maine and New Hampshire, the Governors of both states and 12 busloads of Portsmouth shipyard workers and their families. His real audience, however, is the group of people sitting at the long table across from him. They are members of the presidential commission that is deciding which of the country's military bases to close or cut back this year...
Senator Mitchell was making the case for northern New England, his state included. Closing the 193-year-old Portsmouth shipyard, he said, would cost more than 5,000 jobs and an annual payroll of $270 million. New Hampshire residents had watched neighboring Pease Air Force Base, with a $107 million annual payroll, close two years ago, and they know Loring Air Force Base in Maine will not last much longer. "Basic fairness," the Senator said, "dictates a third strike not be dealt on an already troubled region...
...their part, the Charleston defenders were not letting Mitchell's invidious remarks go unparried. In fact, the venerable South Carolina city had cranked up a campaign long before, because its shipyard was on the originally proposed Pentagon closure list, while Portsmouth and Norfolk were added by the commission for consideration only last month. That explains the placards the Portsmouth workers were waving at the panel hearing in Boston in early June: THE NAVY KNOWS BEST. In other words, close Charleston...
...list, the city's political leaders and Chamber of Commerce launched a public relations counterattack. They raised $1 million to pay for a full-time staff and Washington-based lobbyists. In 18 days they rounded up 140,000 signatures on protest letters. The operation mobilized not only the shipyard's employees but also local businessmen from auto dealers to restaurateurs...