March 17, 2014

HANFORD WORKERS REJECT CONTRACT PROPOSALS

By ExchangeMonitor

Union-represented workers at Hanford overwhelmingly rejected new contract proposals put forth by the site’s cleanup contractors during a vote held July 16. The vote was held after approximately a year-and-a-half of negotiations between the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council and Hanford’s cleanup contractors, with CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. believed to be playing a leading role. According to HAMTC, CHPRC workers voted 408-2 against the proposal; Washington River Protection Solutions workers voted 474-3 against; Mission Support Alliance workers voted 452-4 against; Washington Closure Hanford workers voted 263-17 against; and Advanced Technologies and Laboratories workers voted 25-0 against.

Representatives from HAMTC and the cleanup contractors are now scheduled to meet July 30 to “determine a path forward,” CHPRC spokeswoman Dee Millikin said in a written response yesterday. “We are disappointed that CHPRC represented employees voted not to accept the proposed new three-year Collective Bargaining Agreement recently negotiated between the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) and CHPRC,” she said. HAMTC President Dave Molnaa told WC Monitor yesterday that the union plans to seek “a fair settlement” in the next planned round of negotiations. “The contractors believed their last offer to be fair and requested us to vote thinking that they knew the membership better than us. We agreed to let the members decide. Obviously, they (the members) have decided and have demonstrated to DOE and the contractors that the last offer was anything but ‘fair,’ ” he said in a written response.

Molnaa added, “The results of the vote … clearly demonstrates that we can accept the inherent risk of the nature of our jobs, but we will absolutely not accept reductions in our pensions, unreasonable increases to medical costs, forced overtime, unsafe working conditions, and substandard wage increases in return. We will do the extremely hazardous work of cleaning up America’s nuclear legacy and we want wages, benefits, and working conditions commensurate of our dedication in performing that work.”

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