The security guard’s union at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state accuses Leidos-led Hanford Mission Integration Solutions in court papers of trying to run out the clock on the existing labor contract without first resolving an overtime dispute.
Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS), the DOE landlord contractor, has twice canceled arbitration sessions with a representative from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, according to a June 27 complaint by the Hanford Guards Union.
The employer is trying to remove the issue from arbitration and use it as “a bargaining chip in the upcoming contract renewal negotiations,” according to the Hanford Guards Union.
In 2021, the parties entered the current collective bargaining agreement, which expires Nov. 1, according to the local affiliate of the International Guards Union of America. The Hanford Guards Union asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington to force arbitration on Aug. 6 or soon thereafter.
If Aug. 6 is not feasible, a date should be selected that is convenient for arbitrator Michael Merrill, said the union, which also said that Aug. 6 was one of the dates previously proposed by the contractor itself for arbitration.
In September 2022, the union filed a grievance asserting certain overtime shifts offered by HMIS violated regular shift-lengths laid out in the collective bargaining agreement. In April 2023, HMIS denied the third and final step in the grievance process and the union moved the grievance into arbitration, the union said. The arbitrator was retained through the federal mediation service.
The parties and arbitrator subsequently agreed on a one-day arbitration hearing on June 19. According to the Hanford Guards Union, Hanford Mission then asked for more time, seeking to delay the hearing into September, which is when negotiations on a new labor contract would start. The union then counter-proposed the week of July 8.
According to the Hanford Guards Union, the contractor’s attorney reached out directly to the arbitrator in June and said HMIS was no longer available for an August session. HMIS instead said it preferred to engage in contract negotiations during September.
“HMIS has engaged in a years-long tactical delay calculated to revoke the Hanford Guards’ contractual right to arbitration after the grievance was already submitted to arbitration,” according to the June 27 union filing. “Beyond bad faith, this is a wholesale attack on the entire system; the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] and rights conferred therein, the policies of Labor Peace that underlie all labor laws, and the jurisdiction of a mutually accepted and appointed” federal mediator.
The Hanford Guards Union has represented security patrol officers at Hanford for decades, the union told the court. The 2015 contract was between the union and HMIS’ predecessor, Mission Support Alliance, another joint venture led by Leidos.
Hanford Missions consists of Leidos, Centerra and Parsons.
