The New Orleans Times-Picayune reported July 11 that Administrative Law Judge Philip McLeod also required Avondale bosses to repay $5.4 million in legal fees they had passed on to the U.S. Navy, which had agreed to assume these costs as part of its support to the antiunion stance of the shipyard owners.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems vice president Den Knecht said that the company will appeal on the grounds that the previous owners are responsible. Avondale became a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp. in April, after the military contractor purchased Litton Industries.

In 1993 the shipyard workers voted in their majority to be recognized by the New Orleans Metal Trades Council. That vote was challenged by Avondale in an attempt to stall the organizing effort. A federal appeals court sided with the Avondale bosses in 1998 and threw out the election results.

The Avondale shipyard is the largest employer in Louisiana, with 4,000 workers, and until the winter of 1999 it was also the largest nonunion shipyard in the country. At that time, Litton purchased the shipyard, not long after the union strike victory at the Ingall's shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, also owned by Litton.

The new bosses agreed to recognize the New Orleans Metal Trades Council if a majority signed authorization cards. This was accomplished in short order, as workers signed up in their vast majority, department by department. On Dec. 19, 2000, a union contract was finally signed at Avondale.

For five decades workers fought to unionize the shipyard, with safety as a life or death issue. Between 1974 and 1996, 34 workers were killed on the job, and hundreds were injured. Last summer, three more workers fell to their death as improperly secured scaffolding collapsed.

Tony Dutrow is a meat packer and Socialist Workers Candidate for Houston City Council.  
 
 
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