Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
9/4/2015
A strike involving roughly one-third of the general workforce at the Pantex Plant reached its seventh day today, and labor negotiations between plant site manager Consolidated Nuclear Security and the Metal Trades Council union still appear stalled.
The collective bargaining agreement for unionized workers at Pantex expired at midnight Aug. 28, at which time 1,100 of about 3,000 total workers at the nuclear assembly/disassembly plant went on strike, according to Energy Department and MTC officials. That came after 87 percent of unionized workers voted on Aug. 27 to reject CNS’ “best and revised final offer,” which followed more than seven months of contract negotiations and the union’s dismissal of the original “best and final offer” in early August. MTC and CNS representatives have met since the last vote, but remain at an impasse, according to a press release from the union, and MTC President Clarence Rashada said earlier this week negotiators could need at least two to three weeks to hammer out a deal.
"Wages are not the issue," Rashada said in a statement. "Benefits, sick leave, medical coverage, prescription drugs, those are the issues." Rashada said in a brief phone interview that MTC leadership recommended its members accept the revised contract, but workers did not. He said a “lot of anger” remains among striking Pantex employees about the possibility of having to accept reduced benefits through a new contract.
An official with knowledge of the situation told NS&D Monitor that the timing of future negotiations remains unclear. “Needs time to marinate,” the official said. This is reportedly the first strike of the Pantex general workforce since the 1970s.
Compared to the early August proposal, CNS’ “best and revised final offer” notably conceded in the areas of pension contributions and retiree health benefits, but Rashada said the updated offer would still mean a different pension plan for new hires, and would increase retirees’ healthcare costs. The revised offer proposed that workers contribute 0.5 percent of their salary to pension plans for each of the next two full calendar years, according to documents obtained by NS&D Monitor. The proposed 2017 pension payment would have halved the 1 percent figure outlined in the early August offer. Pantex workers currently do not pay anything toward their pensions. The revised offer also proposed a 7 percent annual reduction in healthcare cost share burdens for retirees compared to the previous best offer. The latest offer would have required retirees to pay 20 percent of their healthcare premiums in 2016, 21 percent in 2017, 22 percent in 2018, and 23 percent in 2019.
The revised deal would have implemented a freeze on accrued sick leave hours on Jan. 1, yet would have authorized 40 hours of annual personal leave allotted for personal illness or injury, according to the documents. It would have been possible to bank unused personal year-to-year up to a maximum of 80 hours. In an Aug. 28 email message to all Pantex employees, facility Site Manager Michelle Reichert said operations at the site would continue through any MTC work stoppage, and work will be available for all employees, including unionized workers. “I ask that each of you continue to ensure that safety, security, and quality standards are your priority, and that we treat each other with the utmost respect,” Reichert wrote.
Since the strike started, Pantex work has proceeded in an apparently limited, but “safe and stable,” fashion, a CNS spokesman said by email on Wednesday. In a message to nonunionized Pantex employees on Tuesday, CNS President and CEO Jim Haynes and COO Morgan Smith urged the plant’s non-union workforce to respect the strikers. “Each MTC employee is facing difficult personal decisions in exercising their legal right to choose to continue reporting to work, and they deserve everyone’s respect throughout this process,” the statement reads.
The statement also indicates that company brass were unaware of how deeply previous changes to benefits would impact employees. “Throughout this contract it has been our sincere desire to maintain wages and benefits that appropriately recognize the important work performed at our sites,” the message states. “However, as has been stated in prior communications, our initial set of changes had greater impact on those involved than was originally anticipated.”
Haynes and Smith added that CNS is rolling out an “upgraded” employment package for Pantex’s nonunionized workforce. Another industry official said the MTC-rejected package was better than the upgraded nonunion plan, yet the forthcoming package for nonunionized workers seems to largely resemble the latest rejected union contract offer.
Haynes and Smith cited a need for labor agreements to reflect a balance between employee appreciation and prudent use of taxpayer dollars. “Tax dollars are used for all aspects of our work, including funding programs, engineering, research, procurements, maintenance, security, safety, other essential business functions, as well as employees’ salaries and benefits,” they said. “Therefore, the challenge is to appropriately balance the recognition of the roles of our employees in accomplishing our unique mission while being respectful of taxpayer funds.”
