A switch in military contracts will result in job losses for more than 90 workers who perform aircraft maintenance on C-130s at the U.S. Coast Guard base in Elizabeth City.
Chantilly, Virginia-based Amentum filed a notice with the state that it would permanently lay off 92 workers at the military base in Pasquotank County on Feb. 3. However, Timothy Boesche, operations manager for Amentum, says the situation is not dire since he expects all of the employees to get job offers from Logmet, the Austin, Texas-based company that will take over the work.
“This was a pretty routine evolution,” says Boesche, who works out of Amentum’s Fort Worth, Texas, office. “There’s not going to be any hardship on anyone’s part because they’re all going to get an offer from the incoming contractor.”
The Amentum employees are represented by the Industrial Division of the Communication Workers of America. An email seeking comment from the union representative was not returned.
Amentum had a five-year contract worth $58.1 million to overhaul C-130s out of a hangar on the Elizabeth City base, Boesche says. The contract was awarded in 2019 to Dyncorp, which was acquired by Amentum in 2020. Amentum has more than 44,000 employees who work in 85 countries on all seven continents, according to its website.
Boesche says both the company and the employees working in Elizabeth City knew that at the end of the five-year contract it would be prohibited from seeking another contract because Amentum is not classified as a small business. The contract went to Logmet, which has more than 400 employees in eight states. Logmet did not return messages seeking comment.
Amentum’s workers already have security clearances, which will make their transition to Logmet easier, Boesche says. Of the 92 workers, more than half have “mechanic” in their job title. A lead mechanic earns $40.21 an hour at Amentum, Boesche says. A data clerk at the site earns $22.05 an hour, he added.
All of the workers will receive raises on Feb. 4 as part of a collective bargaining agreement, which is the day after the new company will take over, Boesche says.
The Coast Guard uses its C-130 aircrafts in search-and-rescue operations and to transport cargo, Boesche says.
Amentum also has about seven employees working on UC-35 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, Boesche says.