BATH (AP) – The Machinists Union threatened to picket an upcoming ship christening ceremony for the Farragut if Bath Iron Works doesn’t pull back its proposal to use a private company for custodial jobs.

Local S6 of the Machinists Union will ask Gov. John Baldacci, Maine’s congressional delegation and other guests not to cross the picket on July 23.

The flap emerged when Bath Iron Works President Dugan Shipway told the union that he is acting according to the current labor contract to replace 24 union custodial and maintenance workers with a subcontractor from Massachusetts.

Shipway said the change is necessary to make the company more efficient and competitive as it battles for contracts with the Northrop Grummans Ingalls shipyard.

Michael Keenan, president of Local S6 of the Machinists Union, said the elimination of union jobs for custodial office workers represents a clear violation of the labor contract.

But the company disagrees.

“I have met with union leaders and I appreciate how difficult this issue is. I am hopeful a productive dialogue with the union’s representatives and mine will continue in an effort to find a path forward that meets the union’s concerns while still striving to meet my accelerated efforts to improve our competitive position,” Shipway said in a companywide bulletin.

Bath Iron Works is facing a declining workload even under the best-case scenario the current Arleigh Burke-class destroyer program winds down and the shipyard makes a transition to the next-generation “stealth” destroyer.

The Navy initially wanted an all-or-nothing contract for the stealth destroyer. Recently, Assistant Navy Secretary John Young proposed letting both Bath Iron Works and Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard each build one destroyer to see which was most competitive.

Young said in late May that he wanted to “put these two yards in a competitive death grip” to force them to become more competitive and to produce a design for the stealth destroyer that’s more affordable for the Navy.

Shipway said the developments in Washington have underscored the importance of accelerating efforts to become more cost efficient.

“These significant changes told me we now had to look more closely at what we could do to improve our ability to survive a competition,” wrote Shipway. “We must continue to take aggressive action.”

But Keenan has said that this proposal is just the beginning of a long list of union jobs the company wants to subcontract to private firms. According to the union, the company has evaluated subcontracting out for tool sharpeners, boiler and compressor operators, snow removal workers, computer support personnel, garage support workers and tugboat operators.

“Allowing this action to go unchallenged will only lead to further General Dynamics actions of a similar nature and will threaten the jobs of all Maine workers at BIW,” he said.