PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) – The strike at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems shipyard in Pascagoula continued Tuesday – its 13th day – as unions and the company prepare for a meeting today called by a federal mediator.

Jim Couch, business agent for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 733, declined to discuss details of a survey discussed at a meeting Monday of the unions represented at the Pascagoula shipyard.

Of the 15 unions at the Ingalls yard, only the Office Workers local accepted Northrop Grumman’s contract offer. However, a clause in their contract allows them to benefit should the other unions negotiate higher wages or other contract improvements. And they have honored the picket lines.

Workers at three other shipyards – Gulfport in Mississippi and Avondale and Tallulah in Louisiana – approved the new contract.

Northrop Grumman, a longtime rival of Maine’s Bath Iron Works, is Mississippi’s largest private employer.

Northrop Grumman has mailed out letters to employees, going around the unions and pitching the best points of the contract directly to the workers in an effort to clear up any misconceptions about the offer and to appeal directly to the workers.

So far, workers have overwhelmingly voted down two offers from the shipyard giant.

Northrop Grumman Ship Systems President Phil Teel, in an interview with The Sun Herald newspaper, said the contract offers represent a $143 million increase in wages and benefits, and he believes that is a fair offer. He has not indicated whether the company would go higher.

Teel said Monday that the company might be willing to distribute the money differently to better cover the concerns of the workers.

“There are some options,” Teel said, “but those options have to be bound within reasonable economics.

“The thing I’m most disappointed in is the fact that we did not clearly understand the issues. And believed that union leadership was delivering the issues. I will be better prepared for that next time. We will be clearly connected to what the issues are separately and independently of the union leadership,” he said.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service works under the National Labor Relations Act and handles all private, public and federal negotiations except the ones that involve airlines and railroads.

The mediator assigned to the Northrop Grumman negotiations is given by law broad latitude in his efforts to bring both parties together.

The act also imposes an obligation on both Northrop Grumman and the unions to bargain in good faith and cooperate with the mediation service.

Couch said Wednesday’s session might be the best chance to avert a long strike.

“It is one more shot to get a settlement and avoid a deadlock. And, nobody wants a deadlock. We can’t get a resolution if we don’t talk. Everybody wants to go back to work.

“We will try to reach an agreement. And, if they make us an offer, we will take it back to the membership,” Couch said.

AP-ES-03-20-07 0901EDT