07 Jan WCME Midcoast News January 7, 2015

Layoffs at BIW

Bath Iron Works has notified its largest union that 48 layoffs will take effect at the shipyard on January 21st. 39 pipefitters and nine machinists are losing their jobs, apparently as a result of a work shortage in those trades. However BIW continues to hire workers in other trades in a demonstration of the variable nature of the work flow at the shipyard at a time when five large naval destroyers are still under construction.

Fairpoint Talks

Fairpoint Communications and the unions representing 1800 of its striking employees continue in federal mediation and have now been talking for three days. But federal mediators have asked the two sides not to make public comment about the mediation process.

A Dour Forecast

A new forecast from the state labor department projects anemic job growth in Maine, expected to lag far behind the nation for the next decade. Our state is expected to add only 15 thousand jobs between 2012 and 2022, an increase of just 2.3 percent. The labor department blames what it calls a demographic challenge, resulting from  both an aging workforce and a lack of a significant influx of younger people.