Read our editorial on the significance of strikes here.
Bath, Maine — More than 600 workers at a major US Navy shipyard have ended a five-day strike after ratifying a new contract on March 28.
Designers, technicians, and clerks represented by the Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association (BMDA), affiliated with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 3999, went on strike for the first time on March 23, at Bath Iron Works (BIW), a subsidiary of arms monopoly General Dynamics and a major shipbuilder for the US Navy. Workers voted Saturday to approve a new four-year agreement, ending the strike.
While BMDA is only one of five unions at BIW, its work is crucial to the production of large naval vessels and affects many other segments of shipbuilding. Workers demanded higher wages and benefits that address inflation. Earlier contract offers were rejected by roughly 75% of the membership in the days leading up to the strike, with union leadership arguing the proposals failed to meet workers’ needs.
BIW returned with a revised offer during the strike, which formed the basis of the ratified agreement. The new proposal increases total pay growth from 23.8% to 28%. However, BMDA President Trent Vellella stated that the new contract does not meet all the worker’s demands. Full details of the contract have not been released.
BIW’s parent company General Dynamics reported net earnings of $4.2 billion in 2025, an 11.3% increase from 2024, and revenue of $52.6 billion, up 10.1%. It is poised to reap more profits as the Trump administration seeks to quadruple arms production and increase the 2027 military budget by 50%, to $1.5 trillion. BIW currently has a multiyear contract to build several warships for the US Navy.
BMDA’s strike coincided with US imperialism ramping up war production to secure its status as the sole hegemonic superpower amid its war against Iran. Despite its possibility to disrupt US imperialism’s genocidal war and militarization efforts, union officials instead betrayed the international working class by attempting to rally workers behind the imperialist war against the people of Iran.
“We all just want to get back to work, continue supporting the US Navy,” Vellella said during the strike.
While business union leadership joins the chorus of imperialist warmongers, rank-and-file workers suffer alongside the entire working class. Arms monopolies increase work tempos and keep wages stagnant to maximize profits, fueled by US imperialism’s incessant wars. The ongoing imperialist war against Iran has murdered thousands of working people in the Middle East while simultaneously raising costs for workers in the US and around the world through increased militarization and the ensuing energy crisis and inflation.
Image: Workers represented by the Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association on strike. Credit: @uawregion9a on Instagram.
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