The head of the United Steelworkers Local 1-689 at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio estimates more than half of his 939 union members at the uranium cleanup site have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Steelworkers union local has asked DOE and its contractors at the former gaseous diffusion plant in Pike County, Ohio to negotiate the impact of any federal mandate requiring site workers to get vaccinated against the virus, Local 689 President Herman Potter said by phone Monday.
Hopefully, the DOE and other federal agencies will provide exemptions for “religious reasons or pre-existing medical conditions,” Potter told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
The unvaccinated group will likely include “some people that are essential” to basic operations at Portsmouth and a number that are close to retirement, Potter said. Some members might either retire or attempt to fight the mandate via the grievance process if DOE takes too hard of a line, Potter said.
The DOE and Portsmouth contractors such as the decommissioning provider, Fluor-BWXT, were having conversations about the Joe Biden administration’s previously-announced plan to require people working at federal sites to either be vaccinated or undergo regular testing when the president took a “harsher” line on Sept. 9 by calling for a vaccine mandate, Potter said.
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force is expected to publish guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine order by the end of the month. Various DOE contractor sources said last week they expect most companies doing business in the weapons complex to fall in line behind the mandate.
