The unionized guards at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state will return to work Sunday after voting Thursday to accept a labor agreement that the Hanford Guards Union says will not address all its concerns.
Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) and Hanford Guards Union (HGU) Local 21 “reached agreement on terms of a new collective bargaining agreement that is beneficial to both parties,” according to a statement late Thursday from an HMIS spokesperson.
“We look forward to welcoming our security police officers back to the Hanford Site, beginning Jan. 12,” HMIS said. “As we move forward, we remain committed to fostering a collaborative and supportive environment for all our employees.”
The Tri-City Herald reported union guards will receive a total pay raise of more than 23% but without receiving what the union called “medical autonomy,” from future vaccine requirements or curbs on increased government monitoring of security guards’ private lives.
In an email to Exchange Monitor on Thursday, Local 21 President Chris Hall signaled the lockout that started Nov. 27 was about to end, but without resolving all the union’s issues.
“We are voting on another proposal today that we proposed and the company accepted,” Hall said. “We are being forced back to work under HMIS unilateral contract conditions. We still have unresolved negotiation matters” as well an unfair labor practice charge pending with the National Labor Relations Board, he added.
While the four-and-a-half-year contract is retroactive to Nov. 1, it does not provide back pay for the lockout period that started Nov. 27, Hall said Friday. That will be an issue before the NLRB., he added.
On Jan. 2, the Hanford Guards Union filed a federal court notice saying it would challenge in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a rejection by U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian of an emergency temporary restraining order against HMIS.
According to the appeal notice, one of the issues involved is DOE and HMIS withdrawing the security credentials of a K-9 officer. The union said in its court filing the union K-9 officer was “ flagged for making a paltry excess of income in 2023-2024.”
Prior to Thursday’s successful vote, multiple contract votes by the union guards had failed since HMIS locked out the union security people on Nov. 27. The previous contract expired Nov. 1 and HMIS locked out union members after a few short contract extensions.
HMIS consists of Leidos, Centerra and Parsons.
HMIS has said a number of times in recent weeks it believed the two sides were at an impasse and it has authority to impose a last and final offer issued to the union last month. The parties have been negotiating with assistance of a federal mediator.
