October 19, 2015

Contract Talks Scheduled at Y-12

By ExchangeMonitor

The Atomic Trades and Labor Council and Consolidated Nuclear Security are scheduled to meet Wednesday to establish ground rules and other labor contract pre-negotiation issues, and actual negotiations for Y-12 National Security Complex workers are slated to begin on Monday, Oct. 26. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to get it done and end up with a good contract,” ATLC President Steve Jones said of the upcoming talks with CNS, the government’s managing contractor at Y-12.

CNS recently reached agreement on a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the Metal Trades Council at Y-12’s sister plant, Pantex, where about 1,100 workers had been on strike for more than a month. Y-12 negotiations have been on hold for months while the National Nuclear Security Administration contractor worked to resolve the Pantex issues, some of which are likely to surface in the Y-12 talks.

The ATLC represents about 13 unions and 1,100 hourly workers at the Oak Ridge nuclear weapons plant. Jones said the ATLC surveyed the Y-12 union workers a few months ago to get the rank and file’s input on priorities for the negotiations and to better prepare for talks with Bechtel-led CNS. Meanwhile, the ATLC recently negotiated a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with UT-Battelle for about 700 hourly workers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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