The International Guards Union of America Local 3 and Oak Ridge protective force contractor WSI-Oak Ridge will begin negotiations today on a new collective bargaining agreement. IGUA’s CBA with WSI-OR at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory expires Aug. 15, and its CBA at the Federal Office Building in Oak Ridge expires Sept. 13. The two sides are expected to begin the talks by dealing with non-economic issues, and hopes among both sides are high that negotiations will be as smooth as other negotiations around the weapons complex earlier this year. Guards at the Savannah River Site, Pantex Plant and Nevada National Security Site completed new CBAs (or wage negotiations in the case of NNSS) with little difficulty, but guards at those sites don’t have defined benefit pension plans like Oak Ridge guards do. Union officials have suggested that they will not accept a deal that would strip away their pension plans.