Northrop- Grumman announced Tuesday its intent to close New Orleans area Avondale shipyards and consolidate the 5000 jobs into its larger shipyard at Pascagoula Mississippi. Avondale lost a union election in the early 1990's, ultimately the union was certified and the shipyard was acquired by Northrop-Grumman. At the time I remember thinking how this ultimately made Avondale much more vulnerable to closure. Now, by sometime in 2013 Avondale is scheduled to be gone. Non-union status was a valuable protector for this shipyard, but now its just an expendable unionized facility.