Los Alamos Guards Union Votes ?No Confidence? in Security Contractor

In the latest twist in the negotiations between Los Alamos National Laboratory and its protective force workers on a new collective bargaining agreement, International Guards Union of America Local 69 announced late last week that its members had unanimously voted “no confidence” in SOC-Los Alamos’ ability to manage the lab’s security contract. The move came after the union accused SOC-Los Alamos last week of negotiating in “bad faith,” alleging the contractor falsely claimed to be able to talk directly with the National Nuclear Safety Administration to pursue better retirement benefits—a key issue in the contract negotiations—to help obtain a 60-day extension to the contract negotiations. “This is not the direction we want to be heading,” IGUA Local 69 Business Agent s Chris Mandril said in a release.

He went on to say, “We want to work collaboratively with SOC-LA to come to a fair agreement. However, after SOC-LA mislead our members and broke their promises to the dedicated, hardworking guards at LANL, we had no choice but to walk away from the table and to express our lack of faith in the company’s ability to effectively manage security at Los Alamos National Lab.”

The union stressed, though, that it did not plan to break off talks altogether, and that the lab’s guards are not preparing to strike. “This is where we are right now,” Mandril said. “We need to regroup and decide how to proceed. Our guards are at work, every day, protecting critical national security assets. We have no plans to change that. We will come back to the table.”