(NECN: Justin Michaels, Portsmouth, NH) - The workers across the water here from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard will be here Thursday to rally against sequestration because they’re about to lose 20-percent of their pay.
Furlough notices go out early next week. They’ll lose one day a week for the next 22 weeks, as a result of sequestration.
The shipyard paid nearly $422 million in payroll to more than 5,300 workers in 2012. There are workers from Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
And those 5,300 workers are concerned about simple things like paying their bills, but so are the business owners from the businesses those 5,300 people frequent.
“I would say 90-percent of our business is from the Shipyard,” says Joe Kaszuba of Mojo’s Restaurant.
“What bills do we pay? Because some of them won’t get paid like they usually do,” says third generation Shipyard worker Joe Joyal.
Only Congress can stop sequestration, either by repealing the cuts or passing a budget.
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If neither of those happens by the end of this fiscal year, the furloughs will go on.
The rally is set for noon Thursday here in Portsmouth, N.H.
