A local branch of the United Steelworkers and contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth remain at odds about the company’s plans to basically stop work during the week of July 4 at the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
USW Local 1-689 President John Knauff said by telephone Monday he has filed grievances, through the normal dispute procedures specified in the labor contract, against the company’s plans to cease decontamination and decommissioning work during the Independence Day week. Knauff said Fluor-BWXT, by forcing USW members to burn vacation days or take unpaid time off, is implementing what amounts to a temporary layoff.
By not bargaining on the specifics of a July 4 week shutdown, the company failed to comply with its labor contract, according to Knauff. Fluor-BWXT spokesman Jason Lovins, in an email last week, reiterated the company’s position that the plan passes muster with current labor agreements. The company also said the work schedule was explained to union members in late 2017. In addition to USW, a separate labor union represents security guards at the site.
Fluor-BWXT currently works a weekly schedule of four 10-hour days at Portsmouth, and the USW contract includes two scheduled days off for July 4. This would leave only a two-day work week and create “an inefficient working scenario,” according to the company. The United Steelworkers represents between 600 and 700 workers at the site.
Knauff counters the company could schedule two 12-hour days that week to help compensate for the shorter work schedule, without forcing union employees to expend two vacation days.
“The net effect is a massive lay-off of employees July 1, 2018,” Knauff said in a June 13 letter to Fluor-BWXT Site Manager Bob Smith. “We state ‘massive’ since the Company has refused to identity which and how many employees will be laid-off.” The letter also asks for details of the company’s financial issues that prompted this “austerity” measure.
