If the recent past is a guide, CEOs at some of the nation’s largest publicly-traded Department of Energy contractors could use their upcoming public earnings calls with Wall Street analysts to discuss President Joe Biden’s toughened stance on vaccinations for federal employees and on-site contractors.
Weapons complex contractors BWXT, Fluor, Huntington Ingalls, Jacobs, Leidos and Parsons are all slated to report quarterly earnings this week. Since the COVID-19 pandemic took root in North America in early 2020, CEOs of publicly-traded federal contractors have discussed the effects of the disease on their business during quarterly calls.
On Thursday, the White House announced that any federal workers or on-site contracts who will not “attest” to being vaccinated against COVID-19 would be required to mask at most places at the workplace, be subjected to frequent testing and face restrictions on official travel. While stopping short of an outright order, the move marks a decided change in tone from merely encouraging workers to get the vaccine and giving them time off to do so.
Between now and Oct. 29, Leidos is holding a “needle sweepstakes,” where 10 inoculated workers can win the equivalent of their annual salaries in prize money. Virtually all 35,000 Leidos full-time employees in the United States, except for some senior managers, will be eligible for the drawing, the company said in a press release last month.
BWX Technologies is the No. 2 partner at several nuclear properties overseen by the DOE Office of Environmental Management including the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Fluor recently lost the cleanup business at the Idaho National Laboratory but still leads the management team at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Huntington Ingalls Industries, known as a shipbuilder, has a growing presence in the weapons complex including a lead role in a legacy remediation contract with BWXT at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Jacobs-led teams have both the cleanup contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky and recently won the new Idaho cleanup contract, displacing Fluor. A Leidos-led team holds the site services contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state. Parsons recently completed building the Salt Waste Processing Facility at Savannah River.
