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| IAM President Tom Buffenbarger (center with jacket) and Chief of Staff Diane Babineaux (to his right) join Ray Mercier (3rd from left) and his family at the ‘Save Our Shipyard’ march and rally in downtown New Orleans. Mercier is an Avondale worker and President of IAM Local 37. |
With thousands of jobs on the line, more than 1,000 union members, elected officials, local business owners, faith leaders and the New Orleans/West Bank community marched from the Superdome to the Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, LA, on a mission to save Avondale Shipyard, the largest private employer in Louisiana.
IAM Local Lodge 37 members who work at Avondale were out in force. Also marching and lending support were International President Tom Buffenbarger; Chief of Staff, Diane Babineaux and IAM Local 470 members from nearby Lake Charles.
“I know a fight when I see one,” asserted President Buffenbarger to the crowd gathered at the Federal Building, “and we are in a fight. This city must stand together. I want to see us continue to build ships at Avondale for many years to come. We can win, and we will win!”
The Save Our Shipyard (SOS) campaign was started last year by the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Council soon after Huntington Ingalls, a Northrop Grumman spinoff, announced the yard would close in 2013. Huntington is counting on $270 million in federal subsidies it would receive only if the shipyard closes.
The jobs at Avondale are not the only jobs in jeopardy. Many local businesses are sustained by the Avondale workers and their families. The ripple effect caused by the shipyard closing would be devastating. The projected loss of 5,000 jobs at Avondale would cause the loss of an additional 7,000 to 10,000 jobs in the surrounding communities, according to the Avondale Research Project, a group made up of University of New Orleans, Southern University at New Orleans, Tulane University and Loyola University faculty.
To keep up-to-date on what’s happening at Avondale, go to http://avondalesos.org.
