WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King issued the following statement today, Friday, Dec. 11, on the tentative labor contract proposal reached between Bath Iron Works and the Machinists Union Local S6:

“Bath Iron Works and its highly-skilled workers are national strategic assets essential to our country’s defense and to our state’s economy. Simply put, there is no workforce better positioned to build the Zumwalt and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers than the men and women of BIW. We have secured funding for the construction of the DDG-1000s and the DDG-51s, and we remain strong advocates for BIW’s opportunity to compete for the construction of the Coast Guard’s new Offshore Patrol Cutters, which would diversify BIW’s workload, and for future Arleigh Burke destroyers.

“We are very pleased that BIW management and labor union leadership have worked cooperatively to reach a tentative proposal for a labor contract. Conversations with senior Navy and Coast Guard officials convince us that cost is a key consideration in nearly every shipbuilding competition. That fact underscores the importance of BIW’s ongoing work to increase operational efficiency at the shipyard because it must offer cost-effective bids in order to win these contracts.”

Senator Collins is a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, and Senator King is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.