UNCERTAINTY ON NEW CONTRACT ‘ENORMOUS CHALLENGE’ FOR Y-12 CONTRACTOR

With Y-12 workers facing uncertainty with the National Nuclear Security Administration’s looming decision on the combined Y-12/Pantex procurement, B&W Y-12 Deputy General Manager Bill Klemm said yesterday the contractor has gotten through that “enormous challenge” by rallying around safety. “The words in this contract are not conducive to stability. So people are truly worried about whether they are going to have a job when this thing is announced. So the consequence of that is that you’ve got to give them something to think about that aligns with what our business is, or we are going to go in a death spiral,” Klemm told NW&M Monitor yesterday on the sidelines of the Department of Energy Regional Small Business Conference in Knoxville, Tenn.

 

Klemm added said that focusing on safety during a period of potential upheaval has been a “very effective tool,” resulting in the recent achievement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Voluntary Protection Program status. “Achieving VPP status in that time of uncertainty is a pretty significant accomplishment in my opinion, but more importantly it kept our people focused on their own personal safety and the safety of the folks around them,” he said, noting that safety statistics have continued to improve from 2011 to 2012. “That’s a big marker. I attribute that to the fact that we kept people focused in the midst of a tornado on being safe.”