Some 200 members of the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers were scheduled to begin a three-day strike Tuesday at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California to protest what they call unfair labor practices, the union said Monday.
“The 200 strikers will spread out across the lab’s gates,” the union wrote in a press release.
The striking workers at the Society of Professionals, Scientists and Engineers Local 11 – University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of America Local 9119, AFL-CIO, voted July 10 to authorize the strike, citing lab contractor Lawrence Livermore National Security’s (LLNS) decision to institute a mandatory on-call policy for union workers without first bargaining over the details.
A spokesperson for LLNS, led by the University of California and Bechtel National, Reston, Va., told Morning Briefing that since the company’s contract with the union expired in 2019, “[t]he Laboratory continues to negotiate in good faith [and] [w]e believe that we have offered competitive rates and benefits, in addition to maintaining full employment and compensation during the pandemic.”
The strike will have “minimal impact on any site operations,” the LLNS spokesperson previously told Morning Briefing.
The union represents all of the lab’s “air conditioning mechanics, locksmiths, boiler and pressure systems mechanics, carpenters, electricians, heavy equipment mechanics, laborers, maintenance mechanics, painters, plumbers/fitters, riggers, sheetmetal workers, trades helpers and welders,” according to its now-expired collective bargaining agreement.
