naval contractors, but has made a big splash since setting up its first U.S. The Australian-owned Austal is a relatively new player among U.S. Campaign organizers are settling down in Mobile for a long-haul effort to revive union shipbuilding in the city, Ault says. Six MTD unions have joined together to back such a union campaign at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, where lucrative Navy contracts have fueled a rapid expansion of the business, including massive new hiring.

Gulf shipyards are recruiting workers from all parts of the country, including heavily unionized areas, and the presence of this whole new generation of workers is a real opportunity for labor organizing, according to Ault. “There is a boom in Gulf Coast shipyards now,” Ault says, and high demand for skilled workers may give unions a foothold. That’s the estimation of Ron Ault, President of the AFL-CIO’S Metal Trades Department (MTD), an umbrella group for unions representing boilermakers, machinists, pipefitters, and other skilled shipbuilding workers from around the country. Rapid business growth may be the key to finally unionizing shipbuilding workers in Mobile, Ala., where an Australia-based defense contractor has successfully fought union organizing for more than a decade.

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