Zoe Sullivan

Zoe Sullivan

Avondale shipyard

Freelance reporter Zoe Sullivan reports on the pending closure of Avondale shipyard for local radio station WWNO.

Zoe Sullivan

Zoe Sullivan

Zoe Sullivan

August, 2011

Zoe Sullivan

Zoe Sullivan

Yes

Yes

Zoe Sullivan

Delona Allen, Millet Wilford, Olin Ferzel

Avondale, LA

ANCHOR INTRO:
Northrup Grumman has announced that it will close the Avondale Shipyard in 2013, laying off 5,000 highly paid skilled workers. Zoe Sullivan went to Bridge City to talk with people about how this would affect them.


MAIN
[Sound of windshield wipers underneath voice]
On a rainy August afternoon, I crossed the Huey P. Long bridge and reached Avondale just as the workers were leaving for the day. Reactions to the announcement that the plant would close varied, but there were 3 common themes: affection for the area, concern for the future of the community, and dismay at the lack of action by politicians.

The plant is closing because Northrup Grumman, which owns the plant, is consolidating its operations to Pascagoula, MS. The amphibious navy ships currently under construction at Avondale are slated to be completed in early 2013, and there are no new orders for the plant to fill once they are done.

Millet Wilford is a welder at the yard. He hopes to qualify for retirement before the yard closes. He says, failing that, he would only find work with his skills by moving North.

I been on the road before. I know what that's about. It's like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz: click, click. " no place like home." I just feel sorry for the guys who don't have, that's not prepared for this. What's going to be their next move? Going to have to leave their families and go to other states to make money.

The Avondale shipyard first opened in Westwego in 1938 and expanded to its current location in 1946. According to one source, Avondale was the state's largest employer at one point, with 26,000 workers. Now that number has dropped to 4,700, but it is still Louisiana's largest manufacturing employer.

Another shipyard worker, Olin Ferzel, has worked in the plant for 8 years. He has two young children and says that he wouldn't leave the state for this reason. In spite of the gloomy outlook, Ferzel holds onto hope.
It means an uncertain future, but I'm hoping that another company's gonna buy the yard.

Failing that, Ferzel says:

There's going to be a flooding of jobless people looking for work. It's going to be devastating.

Just up the road from the shipyard, there is a small commercial strip. Delona Allen has owned and operated Mack's Cafe' and Bar on this strip for 7 years. Allen used an inheritance from her mother to open her place. She named it Mack's in tribute to her mother, who, she says, was a fine cook.

Allen has no illusions about what she will do.

I cannot stay in this area. If I stay in this area, I'ma go bankrupt because of the poverty in this area. And the other 3 stores on the strip, they can tell you themselves, they feel like I do. They're going to close down, too.

Allen returned to Louisiana from Texas where she had taken refuge during Katrina. She criticizes public officials for what she sees as a lack of effort on behalf of the community.

If Avondale closes, people are going to move to different states. I thought they was doin', fixin' the community, fixing everything after Katrina for us to stay here. They're forcing us to move away. They want us here. Well, if you want us here, do something about it.
I came back from Texas. I could've opened a business in Texas, but I came back to Louisiana because I love my people, but they's forcing my hand, too.

Like Ferzel, Allen hopes that something is done to keep Avondale and the community running. Congress Member Cao's office said that he talking with the Obama administration about how to keep the shipyard open beyond 2013, but there are no solid solutions yet.


For WWNO, this is Zoe Sullivan

mp3 format sound

3 minutes, 33 seconds