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Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Workers Exempt From Federal Furloughs

Emily Corwin
/
NHPR

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers learned today they will no longer be furloughed.

New Hampshire’s congressional delegation is praising a decision not to furlough 6,000 civilian shipyard workers at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
 
The Defense Department announced Tuesday the nation’s 680,000 civilian defense department employees would be exempted from furloughs.
 
Paul O’Connor, president of the yard’s largest union, says that he is pleased with the decision
 
“What I’ve been saying all along is that furloughs through sequestration are flat out wrong, conceptually.  Sequestration was a manufactured crisis, manufactured by Congress.”
 
But O’Connor warned that the issue could resurface at the beginning of the next fiscal year, Oct. 1, as Congress deals with the issue of budget cuts.
 
The shipyard workers at the Navy Yard originally faced 22 furlough days each, under Congressional budget sequestration. 
 
That figure was reduced by the Defense department to 14 days.

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