PASCAGOULA, Miss. (AP) -- An offer Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding made to extend the work contract at the company's Ingalls yard passed with overwhelming support.
Officials say the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday with about 90 percent of workers voting in favor of a two-year extension of their labor agreement with the shipbuilder, which is the state's largest private employer.
Irwin F. Edenzon, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Gulf Coast, tells The Mississippi Press the contract extension helps maintain the production momentum.
The existing contracts were approved in April 2007, after a monthlong strike at the Pascagoula shipyard. The extension stretches that contract to March 2012.
Workers at the company's Gulfport site and the Avondale and Tallulah yards in Louisiana also voted on the contract extension.