Organized Labor

By Richard Bermack
Contributing Writer and Photographer

While most craft workers have to travel many miles to far-flung jobsites every day, skyscraper-size construction projects travel each year to the workers at the BAE shipyards. Cruise liners from Alaska to Mexico make their annual voyage to BAE for their physical checkup, and perhaps an occasional propeller replacement or paint job. When they leave the dock’s office, they are as good as new.

BAE is the largest floating dry-dock on the West Coast. They work on everything from historic wooden ferry boats to football stadium-size container ships. The largest boats are the ocean liners. They can hold thousands of passengers, and some are larger than the Empire State Building. The repairs on an ocean liner can take 30,000 man hours, and need to be completed on a tight schedule.
BAE is known for its efficiency and reliability, according to its general manager Hugh Vanderspek. And key to that is a skilled workforce. Vanderspek is proud of both the quality of the work they do and that they do it safely.

The union’s representing BAE workers are part of the Bay Cities Metal Trades Council. The Bay Area council is affiliated with the Pacific Coast Metal Trades District Council, which is part of the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department, founded in 1908. On a national level, the Metal Trades Department represents 20 affiliated unions, with 5 million members.

“On the Jobsite” photographed workers repairing the Carnival Spirit cruise ship, which weighs 88,000 tons, is 960 feet in length, and holds 2,000 passengers. The shipyard employs about 175 union workers on a given day, including members of Industrial Carpenters 2236, Sheet Metal Workers 104, Operating Engineers 3, Plumbers 38, Electricians 6, Teamsters 85, Pipefitters 38, Painters 1176, Boilermakers 6, Machinist 1414, and Laborers 886.

The shipyard, at the foot of 20th Street, is one of the last remaining businesses that were once part of Pier 70, San Francisco’s once thriving industrial area, soon to be redeveloped.