Mare Island Dry Dock in Vallejo to close permanently, all employees to be laid off

By Tori Apodaca

Vallejo city officials say they’ve been informed that the Mare Island Dry Dock will be closing permanently and all workers are being laid off. 

The City of Vallejo says it was told by Mare Island Dry Dock, LLC on Dec. 30 that the company planned to close the facility and terminate all employees in the coming days.

A critical U.S. Coast Guard contract the facility lost out on and “unforeseen business circumstances” were among the reasons for the closure, city officials were told.

U.S. Congressman John Garamendi says he’s outraged by the development, noting that a Portland-based company was awarded the contract to service an ice breaker – a bid that was over $1 million than Mare Island’s.

“I don’t know why they did this, but I am going to find out,” Garamendi said. 

More than 80 full-time union and non-union staff work at Mare Island Dry Dock.

City officials say they are working with the Solano County Workforce Development Board to help impacted employees.

“This is an industry that has been coming back the last couple years, and then this occurs,” said Michael Bernick, the former director of California’s Employment Development Department.

It would be the second iconic scheduled for closure in Solano County in 2026. Previously, Anheuser-Busch announced that Fairfield’s longtime Budweiser plant would be closing by February – impacting more than 200 employees.

“These good, union-based, good-paying, blue-collared jobs are very difficult to replace,” Bernick said. 

Mare Island has a deep shipbuilding history, it being the site of the first U.S. naval station on the West Coast. Since the closure of Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1996, local leaders have been working to redevelop the area. 

CBS Sacramento reached out to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security for comment but has not heard back.