Navy weighing impact of 1,900+ resignations at public shipyards

Over 1,900 workers at the United States' four public shipyards have accepted differed resignation buyout packages offered by the Trump administration, acting Chief of Naval Operations Adm. James Kilby told lawmakers today.

“We’ve had roughly 1,900-plus folks that have chosen to leave that service under the [deferred resignation program] and we’re in the process now of analyzing whether direct or indirect labor or what trades were affected by that so we can rebalance and make sure the work continues,” Kilby said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on readiness.

These four government-run yards -- Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Virginia, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington state -- perform maintenance work on the Navy’s fleet with a civilian workforce of about 38,000.

The workforce reduction comes as the Navy attempts to accelerate maintenance and improve platform readiness. The service is targeting an 80% combat surge ready rate among all surface warships by 2027, though the current surface ship readiness rate stands at 68%, Kilby said last month.

“We do prize those workers, we do want them to feel valued, and we want them to stay on the job,” Kilby said today.

Shipyard maintenance employees were previously exempted from the Trump administration’s plan to cut the Pentagon’s civilian workforce by 5%-8% and freeze hiring. However, these employees are still eligible for the deferred resignation program.

In March, Navy officials said civilian personnel involved in the design, construction and maintenance of the service’s fleet had largely avoided layoffs. About 1,200 Naval Sea System Command’s total 90,000 personnel had taken the buyout, officials said at the time.