Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
10/17/2014
With transition set to wrap up next week on the Paducah deactivation services contract to a Fluor-led team, the local United Steelworkers union is raising concerns about a lack of transparency on worker hiring for the new contractor. The Department of Energy awarded the work to Fluor in July under a contract that aims to complete deactivation work at the recently shut down Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant as it moves from former plant operator USEC back to the Department of Energy. “It has not been a smooth transition,” Jim Key of the United Steelworkers local union told WC Monitor this week. “There has not been smooth communication from the contractor to the local union who is the authorized representative of these workers under the former USEC contract.”
The union is concerned as to whether Fluor is following the preference in hiring requirement stipulated in its contract, Key said. That would give first hiring preference to currently employed workers doing similar work for USEC and LATA Kentucky, the site’s cleanup contractor. After that, preference would go to laid off employees and then to voluntarily separated workers. Before enrichment operations ceased at the plant in May 2013 the plant employed over 1,000 USEC workers represented by the United Steelworkers. At this point all have been laid off with the exception of about 130 workers, Key said.
‘It’s Been a Painstaking Experience’
So far, Fluor has not responded to the union’s requests for information, including a list of USEC workers offered employment at Fluor or LATA Kentucky, according to Key. “Everything that I’ve asked the contractor, they’ve told me they don’t have to tell me. They don’t have a contract with us. So it’s been a painstaking experience,” Key said. After bringing the matter to DOE headquarters personnel, Key said he was told that DOE may possibly force the contractor to provide that information. He also noted that workers who have been hired so far have been offered lower rates than what was provided by USEC. “We will have to after transition date go in and fully organize that union again,” Key said. Fluor this week referred request to comment to DOE, while DOE did not respond to request for comment.
The Fluor-led team, which also includes CB&I and LATA, is expected to complete transition early next week. The contract is set to total $420 million over three years. The group has announced six members of its management team, including CB&I Federal Services executive Con Murphy as Program Manager. Fluor’s Bob Nichols will be Director of GDP Facilities, Operation and Infrastructure. LATA Kentucky Project Manager Mark Duff will be the team’s Director of Environmental Management. Gwen Nalls of CB&I is named Director of Business Services. Paul Kreitz of LATA will serve as Director Integration and Optimization. Fluor’s Jan Preston will be Director of Environmental, Safety, Security, Health, and Quality. Services to be provided under the deactivation contract, according to DOE, include Project Management (including Paducah GDP Delease Planning and Facility Transfer); Facility Modification and Infrastructure Optimization (including Stabilization and Deactivation of GDP Facilities); Decontamination and Demolition, and Environmental Services.
