It’s been 20 years since Bath Iron Works’ largest union went on strike, but the one that started Monday began the same way for Chuck Gurney. 

The 32-year veteran worker from Leeds walked out of work at 12:01 a.m. when the Machinists Union Local S6 strike officially began, “same as back in 2000,” Gurney said. 

Even before the strike began, the looming possibility of it made Steve Gagnon think back to the one two decades ago. 

“We were talking about that, the guys that have been there and done it, and we talk to these young ones that ‘When you vote for a strike, you better know what you’re asking for, and you better be ready,'” said Gagnon, who grew up in Lewiston but moved to Brunswick nine years ago. 

This is the third strike at Bath Iron Works that Gagnon has experienced in his 33 years working there. 

“It is hard,” he said. “There’s not one that’s easy. It is what it is,” said the carpenter shop worker. “And it does take a strain. It’s going to probably take a strain on me eventually.” 

Gagnon was one of the many union members that picketed outside Bath Iron Works on Monday from 4 to 10 a.m. he said. 

Ben Austin of Auburn, a shipfitter who has worked at Bath Iron Works for five years, planned on being there when third-shift workers like Gurney left work just past the stroke of midnight, but a sleepless child kept him home. 

“I absolutely plan on being on the picket line with my brothers and sisters,” said Austin, who at 31 years old hasn’t been alive as long as Gurney and Gagnon have worked at Bath Iron Works. 

Gagnon said part of the reason he voted to go on strike “was for the young ones as well.” 

Gurney had similar feelings. 

“I’m retiring this coming November, so it would have been easy for me to just vote to accept the contract, take the money and run so to speak,” Gurney said. “I voted to strike not for myself but for the future of the shipbuilders at BIW.” 

Both veteran workers said an attack on employee seniority privileges is one of the reasons for the strike, and they’re supporting the strike to make sure, as Gurney said, so “those that come after me have the same opportunities myself and those that came before me fought to get.” 

“You work there to build up seniority,” Gagnon said, “and not to get to the tail end — I’ve got one more contract after this, hopefully — and to have it all disappear.” 

While Austin’s tenure hasn’t been nearly as long as Gagnon’s and Gurney’s, he learned from a veteran worker since he began there. 

“My first partner was a 42-year veteran shipfitter,” Austin said. “I learned about how the company was once run, compared to the way it’s run now, and it had become clear to me in these five years that there is no comparison.” 

Gurney said in his 32 years he has “watched the morale in the shipyard continue on a downward spiral and the only way that will change is when the company gives the respect that the workforce at BIW has earned and most certainly deserves.” 

Both he and Austin said the union was asked to make concessions when the most recent contract was agreed to five years ago, which happened soon after Austin was hired.  

“Unfortunately the concessions the company wants us to take (this time) are just too much,” Gurney said. 

All three were part of the 87% of voting union members who were in favor of going on strike, which Gurney believes is a similar show of support as the strike vote in 2000. 

That strike, Gagnon said, “was a long one,” lasting 55 days. He could see this one lasting just as long, but he is hopeful that it will end sooner. 

“There was a lot of people that think it’s going to be sooner today, while we were picketing,” Gagnon said. 

He noted there was some tension in those early hours of the picketing. 

“You got people knowing that, yeah, there’s tension, but we had to do what we had to do,” he said. 

Gurney said he hadn’t been down to picket as of Monday afternoon because he worked the final shift before the strike started, but he “will be absolutely going down to support my union brothers and sisters in walking the picket line,” as he did in 2000. 

In the meantime, as the strike stretches on, work will still have to be done at Bath Iron Works. 

“At this time, the company is focused on activating its business continuity plan,” according to a company statement shared by David Hench, the head of Communications/Public Relations/Media Inquiries for General Dynamics Bath Iron Works. “In the near-term, this includes continued shipyard production with salaried personnel and others reporting to work. The Company and the Union have not discussed returning to the bargaining table, and there currently is no timeframe for doing so.” 

Austin said he remains “optimistic that the company comes back to the negotiating table with the Local S6 committee. They know the Navy wants these ships and they know they need our skilled labor to build these ships.” 

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