$42M Aker Bailout And Corbett

$42M Aker Bailout And Corbett  — The $42 million bailout of the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard green-lighted by Gov. Corbett might not have been received with the sneering contempt that it has if people actually trusted this state’s government.

And organized labor.

OK, that last sentence was placed to give you a belly laugh.

The money will be used to build two tankers for use between U.S. ports in compliance with the Jones Act. These will be 17th and 18th ships built at the yard since it opened as a private facility in 2000. It had been the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

Aker employs about 1,000 people during construction albeit 700 have been laid off since July.

Columnist Chris Freind has noted that the market for ships is saturated and that there are no customers for these particular, expensive vessels. “Build it and they might come” is not a practice most businesses would adopt assuming, of course, they had to use their own money.

Still, Corbett could always answer that a cleanup of a large, abandoned industrial site in South Philly might very well cost $42 million if not more, unemployment compensation payouts for 1,000 workers would likely run into the eight figures, and that the deal calls for Aker’s European owners to kick in $210 million.

If he should ever give a press conference.

But how about thinking outside the box?

If Corbett’s goal is to help the shipyard weather a world-wide economic downturn, maybe rather than using crony capitalism to flood the market with unwanted ships he could have had Pa. pay for Aker to refurbish national treasures like the USS Olympia and the SS United States , now rusting at Delaware River piers.

He could have required the unions to accept the employment of 100 apprentices from Philadelphia and Delaware County vocational schools who would be paid minimum wage and could be fired at a moment’s notice without being covered by unemployment comp.

Granted something like that would require our government to show some imagination and organized labor to demonstrate reason, so let’s chalk that up to wishful thinking.

But if Corbett really wants to help Aker and save what’s left of the Philadelphia industrial base, he would put aside all central planning schemes and get back to the basics as to why entrepreneurs set up shop at certain places and only go to others if they are paid millions and millions. Can anybody say property tax breaks for everybody, not just Europeans threatening to leave?  Can anybody say “right to work”?

 

$42M Aker Bailout And Corbett

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