Navy Secretary warns workers can make more at Amazon instead of building America’s warships: ‘It's hard to get that person to want to do that job’

(Credit: Anna Moneymaker—Getty Images)

Convincing workers to spend their days welding at a shipyard, when they could earn a similar amount of money working behind the counter of an air-conditioned Buc-ee’s, is one of the biggest obstacles to reviving the country’s lagging $37 billion shipbuilding industry.

At least that’s the theory of U.S. Navy Secretary John Phelan, who, during his confirmation hearing in February, said he was handed down a mandate of “shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding” by President Donald Trump.