Biden cabinet members talk jobs at EB
“We’re making sure that we prioritize workers who were shut out in the past, particularly people of color and women.” Marty Walsh
U.S. Secretary of Labor
With many people out of work or underemployed due to the pandemic, apprenticeships — long seen as pathways to higher paid, higher skilled jobs —, are emerging as key way to bring people back to work in jobs that can support their families.
That was the message of two of President Joe Biden’s cabinet secretaries in their joint visit to Electric Boat’s headquarters in Groton on Tuesday. Both hail from New England states with histories of using apprenticeships to train workers in the manufacturing and industrial sector.
“The reality is that today, in order to get a decent job, you need some degree or credential or skill or trade past high school. That’s a fact of our economy.
“You saw the folks that got hurt most during the pandemic were those who were in the lower-skill, lower-wage jobs,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, former governor of Rhode Island.
The submarine builder was a prime venue for Raimondo and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former union official and mayor of Boston, to deliver that message, as the company — with a plant in Rhode Island — has hired and trained thousands of employees in recent years for highly technical jobs with good wages.
President Biden’s American Jobs Plan proposes a $48 billion investment in workforce development, including creating 1 million 2 million registered apprenticeship
slots, Raimondo said. The administration also wants to expand job training programs, and target those who are underrepresented including communities of color and women.
“We’re making sure that we prioritize workers who were shut out in the past, particularly people of color and women. We need to make sure we create these programs for everybody so everyone can benefit from them,” Walsh said.
He added, using Biden’s campaign sligan, “This is how we build back better.”
The Connecticut Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship Training currently has 6,710 registered apprentices and nearly 1,700 employers that span 50 occupations. Over the past 20 years, 900 apprentices have worked at
EB, according to data from the governor’s office.
About 300 apprentices are currently enrolled in EB’s three- to four-year design and manufacturing programs, which combine on-the-job training with classroom learning, in specialties ranging from computer-aided design and 3D modeling to welding.
The apprenticeship programs are for employees already working at the company, who go through a competitive process to apply. About 75 percent of apprentices make it through the program.
One of them is 25-yearold Arnold Chappell, of Waterford, who just graduated from the inside machinist apprenticeship program in January. Chappell started working at EB about six years ago, fresh out high school. He worked
in assembly for about two years until 2016 when EB restarted its internal apprenticeship programs.
“It’s been one of the best things I could’ve done,” he said. “I learned every machine in our shop and a bunch of different types of machines that will pretty much give me a good baseline for the rest of my life.”
Joined by Gov. Ned Lamont, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Reps. John Larson, D-1st District, Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, and EB’s president Kevin Graney, Walsh and Raimondo toured the company’s Groton shipyard, where four different attack submarines are under varying stages of construction and where a major expansion is underway to make way for construction on a new fleet of ballistic missile submarines.
The new building being constructed will feature more steel than the Eiffel Tower.
The company is experiencing a boom not seen since the Cold War, spurred by major investments by China and Russia in their undersea fleets and a need for U.S. to stay atop the competition.
At the same time, the company’s Cold War generation employees are retiring in large numbers so “we’re hiring everywhere,” said Andrew Bond, EB’s vice president of human resources.
Last year, the company, which never shut down during the pandemic due to its work in support of national security, hired 2,000 new employees. This year, it’ll hire at least 2,400 more.
Of the 17,500 people currently employed by EB, more than 12,000 work in Connecticut.
Since 2014, the company has hired about 17,000 people to fill jobs left by those retiring or leaving for other reasons and to carry out its increased workload. EB expects to hire a similar number of people over the next seven years, Bond said.
EB is not able to train and find the workers it needs on its own. Partnerships with the Eastern Workforce Investment Board, community colleges such as Three Rivers in Norwich, and technical high schools, have helped develop the workforce needed, with direct input from company officials on how training programs should be structued and the skills these prospective employees should be learning.
While the company has made a significant investment in training, it’s also relied on state and federal funding.
The company expects to reach its peak year for hiring in 2029 — a sign of the level of work it has in front of it, with the new Columbia class strategic missile subs coming into production. Lamont pointed out that those who will be of hiring age at the time are currently in middle school.
“We’ve got to do everything to let them know what an amazing career this is, a great paying job, a job with job security, a job that makes a difference in terms of world peace, and a job right here in Connecticut,” Lamont said, pausing “and Rhode Island,” referring to EB’s facility in Quonset Point where submarine hulls are constructed.