Protective force workers in Oak Ridge ratified a six-year collective bargaining agreement with security contractor WSI-Oak Ridge late last week that would phase out the lucrative defined benefit pension plan enjoyed by the guards at the site. The new contract will take effect Aug. 15, and under its terms, guards from the International Guards Union of America Local 3 that protect the Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and federal offices in Oak Ridge will receive an average wage increase of 2.5 percent over the next six years, WSI-Oak Ridge confirmed, and will also maintain most medical benefits and will enjoy a $2,500 lump sum payment at the beginning of the contract. But the removal of the guards’ pension plan was the most notable, and controversial, result of the new contract. Union leadership had suggested in the months leading up to negotiations that it would go to great lengths to protect the pension plan. Pension plans, which have been a target of the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration because they are more costly than defined contribution plans, were severed for guards at other sites over the last decade, and Oak Ridge’s guards were the last remaining group to enjoy the perk. Under the terms of the new contract, the pension plan will be cut in 2017.