From a gut-wrenching meeting with laid-off workers on a frigid winter night, to the triumphant christening of a new maritime training vessel under a brilliant summer sky, we’ve navigated from stormy weather to fair winds and following seas with the Philadelphia Shipyard.
My first meeting with shipyard workers was memorable. Just weeks after I was sworn into Congress, union members requested that I meet them in a trailer at the Shipyard on a blustery January evening. All but 60 of the shipyard’s 1100 workers had been laid off due to lack of work, and their health care insurance was running out. Some union members were cursing the management and layoffs, but their anger couldn’t mask their concerns about how they would pay their mortgages and feed their families. Some shed tears of fear and frustration about sick and disabled family members who would lose health care in a few days.
That’s when revitalization of the Philadelphia Shipyard became not just an economic and national security priority for my office, but a personal one as well.
Since the founding of our nation, Philadelphia has been a vital shipbuilding hub. During World War II, over 40,000 Philadelphia Naval Shipyard workers built and repaired hundreds of ships, providing critical support to the Allied war effort. But in recent years, the Philly Shipyard struggled. The Navy closed its shipbuilding operations in 1995, and the Shipyard became a commercial facility. In the absence of significant federal investment, the US shipbuilding industry struggled to compete with other nations, particularly China and South Korea.
In 2019, when I first met with the workers, the Shipyard had completed its last contract to build a commercial ship and was desperately looking for new work. I immediately got to work partnering with public, private, state, local, and union stakeholders to bring more work to the Shipyard.
I led a coalition of federal, state, and local officials in successfully securing a $1.5 billion federal contract to build five National Security Multi-Mission Vessels (NSMVs) for the US Maritime Administration (MARAD), and secured congressional appropriations for all five ships. These vessels will be used to train the next generation of US mariners and replace ships that are more than 50 years old. Today, three of the ships have been delivered, and two more are under construction.
The NSMV contract revitalized Philly Shipyard, creating over 1,500 new jobs and making the shipyard a leading driver of the Navy Yard’s economic development. We worked with the Shipyard, the Navy, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp, our local community colleges, public schools, and local unions to develop a robust training and apprenticeship program, both to demonstrate that the Philly Shipyard has the skilled workforce to win new contracts and to ensure that members of our community have the skills to get those jobs. One of my favorite annual events in our district is the high school welding competition at the Shipyard, which gives young people the chance to develop their skills and compete for good-paying apprenticeships and union jobs.
In addition to supporting workforce development, I secured Community Project Funding to repair the Quay Wall linking the Navy Yard to Broad Street and the 26th Street Lift Bridge, providing vehicle access to either end of the Shipyard. We helped the Shipyard navigate workforce and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic. We are also working on a range of strategic infrastructure initiatives to further the revitalization of shipbuilding in Philadelphia.
Philly Shipyard was able to leverage our successes to secure new, private contracts and, along with other companies at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, to secure repair work for the Navy. In addition to new contracts at the Shipyard, its Navy Yard neighbor, Rhoads Industries, is playing a significant role in the construction of the new Columbia-class submarines. In Congress, I’ve been working with colleagues from both parties on more legislation to increase our nation’s shipbuilding capacity, including the SHIPS for America Act.
Last year saw a major step forward in our coalition’s efforts to diversify and expand investment in the Philly Shipyard, as the Biden Administration worked with us to greenlight the sale of the Philly Shipyard to Hanwha, a cutting edge South Korean shipbuilding company. Hanwha completed its purchase of the Shipyard in December 2024, and has already invested millions to modernize and expand the shipyard as part of a $5 billion investment plan to increase production ten-fold. Hanwha has also committed to honoring Philly Shipyard’s existing union contracts.
In 6 years we’ve seen the number of workers at the shipyard go from 60 to 1800, and Hanwha projects that it will eventually double the workforce. Over 25 years after the Navy left Philadelphia, shipbuilding is again a major driver of the region’s economy. As a result, the Navy has launched the Pennsylvania Talent Pipeline Project, a workforce development program in the greater Philadelphia area to connect hundreds of students and schools with employers in the shipbuilding industry that has since become a national model.
From tears and fears in January 2019, to last month’s christening of the third maritime training vessel with the president of South Korea in attendance on a brilliant August afternoon, I’ve had a thrilling voyage as we’ve brought the shipyard back to life.
But we are not done yet.
Sincerely
Mary Gay
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