County Backs Effort to Save Shipyard Jobs

Attempting to save about 1,000 jobs at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to urge the Navy to assign the cruiser Halsey to the shipyard for overhaul in 1989.

The supervisors also agreed to request support from Gov. George Deukmejian and California’s congressional delegation in the lobbying effort.

The Navy decided in March to refit the Halsey and two other cruisers at the Long Beach yard despite a provision in the 1988 federal defense appropriations act that requires open bidding among government and private shipyards for the contracts.

Since then, however, the Navy has said it will allow open bidding on all three contracts, each worth about $100 million.

Supervisor Deane Dana, who represents Long Beach, argued in his motion Tuesday that the Halsey contract should be awarded to the local shipyard. Loss of the contract would cost the shipyard at least 1,000 jobs and $3.4 million it had spent preparing for the overhaul, he said.

The Long Beach shipyard, which is the city’s second-largest employer behind McDonnell Douglas Corp., has been the target of an aggressive campaign by private shipbuilders who contend that it is unnecessary and does work that could be performed better in the private sector.

A federal commission charged with identifying obsolete military installations said this month that it will base its recommendations on facilities’ importance--a factor on which opponents consider Long Beach highly vulnerable.

The shipyard is one of only two Navy yards that are not qualified to work on the Navy’s nuclear-powered ships, which make up 26% of the U.S. fleet.