Bremerton shipyard feeling weight of Trump’s rollback of DEI programs

President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month, dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, as reported by The Associated Press (AP).

The order has shaken up workplaces across the county, including the U.S. Navy’s Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton.

According to The Seattle Times, citing an October employee newsletter, the shipyard harbored at least 11 employee resource groups with about 400 to 500 employees being members of at least one groups.

“Also known as affinity groups, employee resource groups are voluntary, worker-led groups that provide a space for colleagues, often from marginalized backgrounds, to connect and support each other,” Seattle Times staff reported Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks wrote.

The Kitsap Sun reported the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) were halted after Trump signed the executive order.

Bremerton shipyard had a variety of employee resource groups

The groups, as reported by The Seattle Times, fostered communities for Asian American, Hispanic, Black, LGBTQ+, women and veteran workers, among others.

Meanwhile, Trump called the DEI programs “discrimination” and insisted on restoring strictly “merit-based” hiring, according to The AP.

“The executive order is certainly demeaning and a little derogatory,” Mark Leighton, president of the Bremerton Metal Trades Council, representing around 9,000 workers, told The Seattle Times Thursday. “We don’t have any token people here. You can either turn a wrench or weld a joint, do the work required, or you don’t work here.”

When asked if the ERGs were even counted as DEI programs, Leighton told The Kitsap Sun “Everyone thought it was best to kind of shut it down so no one was tempted to do something unsavory. That’s kind of just for the safety of all that are involved, so that no one would end up under scrutiny for any particular reason, especially our protected minorities, who are already prone to abuse anyway, hence why the ERGs exist in the first place.”

Leighton also told The Kitsap Sun no one in the shipyard was fired or demoted due to the president’s order.

Julia Dallas is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read her stories here. Follow Julia on X here and email her here.