BATH

Maine’s two U.S. Senators expressed concern today about the impact “sequestration” could have on the work force at Bath Iron Works.

In their first joint appearance representing Maine in the U.S. Senate, Republican Susan Collins and Brunswick independent Angus King held a news conference (VIDEO LINK) this morning at the shipyard, and toured the facility with BIW President Jeffrey Geiger. 

As they did so, President Barack Obama and Congress are sparring over automatic cuts that could devastate the military’s civilian work force should the government not be able to address the nation’s debt crisis by March 1.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if a budget deal isn’t reached, he may have to shorten the work week for the “vast majority” of the Defense Department’s 800,000 civilian workers. 

They’d lose one day of work per week, or 20 percent of their pay, for up to 22 weeks, probably starting in late April. 

And that could mean pay cuts for people who work at Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. 

According to the Navy, 1,121 temporary workers would lose their jobs nationwide, mostly in shipyards. 

Geiger told reporters today long-term contracts would not be affected. But he sees “several hundred people” potentially affected — mostly in the field of technical services for maintenance to various ships in the Navy fleet — possibly as soon as “six to nine months.”

Collins and King addressed such concerns in a letter to the president and Congress, and they reprised their concerns today in Bath.

They expressed “deep concern over the impact that sequestration would have on national security, including the defense industrial base in Maine, and our nation’s fragile economic recovery.”

Failure to avert such an outcome, they continued, “could have severe ramifications for our nation’s shipbuilding industrial base, including Bath Iron Works in Maine, the nation’s premier shipbuilder and employer of more than 5,000 workers.”

The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1. Defense officials have said that civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.

The Pentagon furloughs would affect civilians across the country, but Jim DeMartini said today that furloughs are largely not an issue for BIW, which does not employ government-hired civilians.  However, there are 177 civilian workers employed by the Navy at Command Communications, across the street from, BIW who could be furloughed, he said.

Kristin Mason, supervisor of shipbuilding at Command Communications, says that their workers oversee the design and construction of ships built at BIW and elsewhere.

As far as BIW is concerned, the more pressing issue is the Department of Defense budget. 

“The Department of Defense buys the ships,” DeMartini said.