General Dynamics Electric Boat has experienced 40% of its total coronavirus cases in the last eight weeks fueled by the virus' omicron variant, Electric Boat president Kevin Graney told reporters Monday.
“Over the course of the last eight weeks, the omicron variant has resulted in the highest daily case rates we've experienced here at EB,” Graney said.
Electric Boat is building the Navy’s top acquisition priority, the Columbia-class submarine, and is also building Virginia-class submarines at its Connecticut shipyard.
While the company has been able to avoid any shipyard shutdowns due to the pandemic, it has experienced some schedule delays, Graney said.
“The forces that we're dealing with as it relates to COVID are resulting in a decline in productivity caused by pandemic-related absenteeism, and reduced efficiency as a result of that,” he said. “Our suppliers and our partners experienced the same COVID-related challenges as we have, and we're working hard to reduce any schedule impacts that are occurring as a result of the pandemic.”
The spread of omicron affected Electric Boat’s management at a disproportionately high rate, Graney said.
“Unfortunately, it hit our senior ranks, that is our leadership ranks -- supervisors, first-line supervisors and above -- disproportionately relative to the rank and file,” he said. “It’s hard to lead a crew of people when your leader is on the beach suffering from COVID.”
With the omicron variant waning in Connecticut, Graney said he is confident the company will see lower case rates in the next week or two.
Electric Boat is 86% vaccinated without invoking a vaccine mandate, Graney said. As the company grows its workforce to build the Columbia-class submarine, Graney said it is important the company did not lose workers who would have left if the company instituted a vaccine mandate.
“We could have lost some of our team at the time we were hiring to achieve our growth trajectory,” he said. “We could have had, we estimate, 10% to 15% of our people actually exiting the business. So being able to get to a high rate of vaccine without that mandate, and hanging on to all of our people, was particularly important given the workload that we've got.”
The pandemic contributed to the company’s delay in delivering the Virginia-class submarine Oregon (SSN-793), but that was not the only factor, Graney said.
“From a delays perspective, I don't think those are necessarily related solely to COVID,” he said. “We've had some material-related issues and some re-work issues associated with that hull. We are coming through that.”
Oregon’s delivery had been planned for fall 2020. The company is set to deliver the submarine in coming weeks, Graney said.