BATH

Several of the victims of the government shutdown are located right in Bath.

One hundred seventy workers at the Supervisor of Shipbuilding — known as SUPSHIP — are on furlough because of the budget impasse in Washington.

SUPSHIP workers had already been hit by government cutbacks. In late April, all of its civilian employees were forced to take one unpaid day off per week, for 22 weeks, in the aftermath of the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.

Those workers would have returned to full-time hours on Monday.

However, on Tuesday at midnight, the federal government shutdown when the Republican-led House and the Democratic-led Senate failed to reach an agreement on a continuing resolution to keep funding the government, resulting in the furlough of “non-essential” workers.

SUPSHIP staff are not employees of Bath Iron Works, although they work closely with employees at the shipyard. They are civilian employees of the U.S. Navy who supervise contract work and do quality control on work done for the Navy at BIW.

BIW spokesman Jim DeMartini said Thursday that business would continue as usual for now.

“Right now, I am planning for a christening,” he said, referring to the first Zumwalt-class missile destroyer, which will be christened Oct. 19.

Chris Johnson, a U.S. Navy spokesman, said he was unable to speculate about how long the workers would be off the job.

“That will be up to Congress,” he said. “There’s plenty of work for BIW workers to do that doesn’t require SupShip for now. But if the situation drags on, there could be some disruption at BIW.”

The 170 workers are fulltime employees, and live in the Mid-coast permanently.

In addition to the SUPSHIP workers, the government shutdown has affected numerous federal employees in the state, mostly connected with shipbuilding.

Four thousand civilian employees were furloughed at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, many of whom live in Maine. Also furloughed are 400 Maine National Guardsmen, and 200 rangers and other employees at Acadia National Park.

ghamilton@timesrecord.com