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By

April M. Havens

November 22, 2009, 6:01PM

(Press-Register/Mary Hattler)Irwin F. Edenzon is sector vice president and general manager for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding for the Gulf Coast , left, with President Michael Petters at the company shipyard on Nov. 17, 2009.

PASCAGOULA, Miss. — The challenges of years past taught Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding how to become more predictable for customers and shareholders, its leaders say, better positioning the company to prepare for a busy 2010.

“We have a lot going on, and we will have a lot going on next year,” said NGS President Michael Petters. “We’ve had our share of challenges that’s part of the business. But the other side of it is we’ve had some really good people working through those challenges, and we’ve been able … to put in place the processes and procedures we need to improve the business.”

Petters is negotiating with union leaders on a contract extension on the collective bargaining agreements that expire in March 2010.

A proposal, which is endorsed by Northrop Grumman and its unions, will be presented to workers Monday, although key parts of the deal have been reported.

Six ship christenings are scheduled companywide in 2010, five of those on the Gulf Coast, Petters said.

At the Pascagoula yard in the second quarter, San Diego (LPD 22) and the William P. Lawrence (DDG 110) are scheduled for christenings.

Stratton (WMSL 752), a Coast Guard national security cutter, will be a major christening event in the Pascagoula yard’s third quarter. First lady Michelle Obama sponsors the ship, which is named in honor of Dorothy C. Stratton, the first female commissioned officer in the Coast Guard.

In the fourth quarter, Arlington (LPD 24) and Anchorage (LPD 23) will be christened in Pascagoula and Avondale, respectively.

Finally, California (SSN 781), a Virginia-class attack submarine, will be christened in the fourth quarter at Newport News, Va.

Last week, Petters and Irwin Edenzon, vice president and general manager of Gulf Coast operations, met with The Mississippi Press editorial board, discussing the busy upcoming year and the company’s continued push to beef up the work force in Pascagoula.

(Press-Register/Mary Hattler)“Organized labor is a big part of our business,” said Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding president Michael Petters. “We make agreements with those folks on how we’re going to operate the business. It’s going to be the work rules we follow, the way that they can expect us to behave and the way we can expect our production team to behave.”

PRESS: How are your relations with organized labor to day?

PETTERS: My view is that organized labor is a big part of our business. We make agreements with those folks on how we’re going to operate the business. It’s going to be the work rules we follow, the way that they can expect us to behave and the way we can expect our production team to behave. We absolutely honor that. We cherish the opportunity to have those kinds of agreements to make sure we’re both looking at the problems the same way. When we have disputes, we want to get into the room and talk about what the issues are, and we want to work it out. You can get reasonable people in the room and they can have reasonable discussions. It’s always OK for reasonable people to disagree. It’s not OK to disagree unreasonably. So let’s go figure out what’s the issue that you have, what’s the issue I have, and where’s the overlap in that and how can we find a way to go ahead because we both need to go ahead. Everywhere I go I want to have a functional relationship with the labor piece of our business because it’s so critical to what we do. We’ve worked pretty hard over the last few years to create functionality in our relationship.

PRESS: What percentage of your 12,000 workers here are unionized?

PETTERS: About two-thirds.

PRESS: What is the local employment situation?

PETTERS: You typically don’t go to college to get a degree in shipbuilding. The real challenge for us is how we make sure that when they get here we can train and develop those folks in such a way that they’ll quickly become a contributing member of the work force. We have enough people to hire.

EDENZON: We really haven’t had a supply-side issue. The challenge we have now is to raise the bar. The economy after (Hurricane Katrina) presented a lot of opportunity. A lot of our work force moved away to take advantage of other opportunities. That has changed now. We now perhaps can become just a little bit more selective.

PRESS: Do your applicants have the basic education and skills they need for you to turn them into good shipbuilders?

EDENZON: The two most important classes I had in my entire education were typing and shop. Many of the programs that teach kids how to use their hands disappeared for some time. The raw material is a little bit different than it used to be because of what you leave high school with, but we have to pick up the responsibility for that. In the future we’re going to see this turn and have more people coming to us that have the skills for us to build on.

PETTERS: We resist the notion that you can’t transform the talent that’s out there into what we do.

PRESS: What is the status of the $20 million Mississippi Shipbuilding and Metal Trades Academy, to be built on Jerry St. Pe Highway near your front gate?

PETTERS: We’re working our way through the final agreements on how we’re going to operate this thing. We’re heading for a groundbreaking. We haven’t pinned any dates down for when we’re going to do that, but that’s not too far away. That is a key part of how we want to improve the quality of the work that we do and the engagement and excitement of our work force.

EDENZON: The state is providing the funding, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College will be the operator, and we will be a partner with the community college.