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MUSIC
If you’re not a praying person, when this news came out, I’m sure a lot of people
became a praying person because all you can do is pray.
We all are nervous about it. We don’t really know what to expect.
This area has been devastated so many times, in so many ways. This would just be another
case of devastation.
My name is Jim Couch. I’m the Business Manager for IBEW Local 733.
NATSOUND: Hammering on metal
Here at Avondale they build amphibious assault ships for the US Navy.
But unfortunately, when these ships are done there’s no more coming…
NATSOUND: Ringing alarm
And it’s going to put a lot of people out on the street.
MUSIC BREAK
My name is Merland Farria. I’ve worked for Northrup Grumman at the Avondale facility
for about 25 years.
NATSOUND: Spinning machine
For the most part, people are almost in disbelief. We just went through Katrina, the oil spill.
I mean, how much more can this community take?
MUSIC BREAK
I’m Lee Petit.
And I’m Lisa Petit. We both work at Avondale shipyard and we’ve been married for 26 years.
We’re not the only spouses who work here. You can say at least 50 percent of the yard
is husbands and wives. So it’s not just going to take one paycheck, it going to take
both paychecks. You know, it’s going to hurt a lot of people.
My name is Mary Butler and I’ve been working at Avondale for 25 years. It’s something
that you don’t want to think about. It really affects a lot of people. And it’s going
to be a domino effect, where it hits the grocery stores , it hits the restaurants.
NATSOUND: Van passes
My name is Delona Allen and I own Mac’s Café. My customers are Avondale. When they
get off work at two o’clock everybody’s in here. That’s the people that support
me. If this shipyard closes, I couldn’t stay open at all. I’m being honest with
you. It’s going to devastate a lot of people.
MUSIC BREAK
It will be one of the most devastating economic impacts that this region has seen next to
the hurricane that came through and then the oil spill.
MUSIC BREAK:
My name is Chico McGill. I’m the Director of the Government Employees Department out
of the International Office of the IBEW in Washington, DC.
NATSOUND: Forklift
When you lose an industrial base of this size in the
United States you cannot replace that industrial base, because this would be permanent, this
would go on and it would be something that would not be able to recover.
NATSOUND: Ship at sea
Congress has not allocated, nor has the Navy decided to build, enough ships to keep six
shipyards busy. Some of the finest ships in the fleet come out of this yard. There’s
no reason to close this yard.
If you shut this shipyard down, you’re taking work and you’re taking jobs and you’re
getting rid of them; something that we should not be doing at all.
NATSOUND (meeting): “We’ve had suicides in the yard, people having heart attacks.”
We want everybody to the table and everybody to understand what’s going to happen if
this shipyard closes down.
My name is Leo Damaris. The Save Our Shipyard Campaign is an effort to try to raise awareness.
Everybody when explained about the fact that Avondale is about to close down is like their
jaw drops; there’s no way.
NATSOUND: “Fill out this sheet...”
We’re making our best effort to let everybody know that we got a big issue going on here
in our communities.
MUSIC BREAK:
I don’t know what to say to try to convey the importance of this yard staying open and
what this means to the community.
NATSOUND: traffic noise If you look around now, you’ll see they’re
building this new overpass to come across the river. All of this was supposed to make
it easier to get in and out of here to the shipyard, because everybody figured this place
was going to be open, well, forever. But now they’re calling it the bridge to nowhere
because there isn’t any place to go. It’s just a road to nowhere. We need help.
www.AvondaleSOS.org