Jeffboat to shut down

Written by Nick Blenkey
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MARCH 26, 2018 — After several rounds of layoffs, inland shipbuilder Jeffboat LLC, Jeffersonville, IN, is to end its operations.

Confirmation came in a statement posted by Teamsters Local 89 on its Facebook page on Saturday that reads:

It is with heavy hearts that we confirm reports that Jeffboat, the nation’s largest inland shipbuilder and one of Local 89’s oldest companies, is shutting down.

Over the last several years, the shipbuilding industry has seen a massive decline and while this cycle has occurred in decades past, this time it was unfortunately too much for the company to bear.

“It’s a very sad day for a lot of hard-working, ship-building craftsmen and craftswomen,” said Business Agent Jim Kincaid, a former worker at Jeffboat. “I worked beside a lot of these folks for many years through the most extreme weather anybody can imagine. They always delivered the best barge or towboat in the industry. They poured their heart and souls into it. They took pride in their work and built some of the best vessels on the rivers and oceans. Words can’t express how saddened we are that this historical ship yard is closing its doors.”

“For me this is heartbreaking news that the Boat Yard will be closing. Like so many others, I started my career there as a young man working as a 1st class welder and Pipe-fitter. I have met so many great people over the course of time there,” said Business Agent and Recording Secretary Jeff Cooper, also a former worker at Jeffboat. “When I say great people, that’s exactly what I mean, people that work extremely hard at building a great big ass American made product the old-fashioned way like no other, and it was always built under the Union Label with extreme pride.”

The Jeffboat shipyard has been a staple of Jeffersonville, Indiana for decades and even before they began building barges, steamboats were built in that very same spot over a century ago by another company. It is tragic to see such a historical site shut down, both for the immensely skilled workers there, and the city of Jeffersonville as a whole.

“The loss of these jobs is devastating but experienced and highly trained Union Sisters and Brothers always prevail in the end. We dust ourselves off, pick up the pieces and we move on to our next adventure,” said Cooper. “In the near future we will be meeting with the employer to bargain the effects of the closure with the goal of securing all the right and benefits that they are entitled to and help transition our membership onto their next adventure.

“We are going to do everything in our power to find these brothers and sisters other jobs and help them to pick up the pieces,” said Kincaid. “They are good, hard-working folks. They will be an asset to anybody who hires them in the future.”

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