HASC Chair Asks DOE to Re-Evaluate Pantex Workers? Benefits

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is urging the Department of Energy (DOE) to re-evaluate the benefits package at the heart of the strike at the Pantex nuclear weapons plant and calling for special attention toward the facility’s deferred maintenance issues. Unionized workers at the Pantex Plant have been on strike for more than a month over the reduction of employee benefits in the final contract offered by site managing contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). Negotiations were paused last Friday, days after a federal mediator intervened in the process, but are expected to resume this week. “I hope DOE will review its policies to understand their full impact on employees and the nuclear enterprise mission,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Tex.) said in a letter Friday to DOE Secretary Ernest Moniz, citing DOE Order 350.1, which “requires contractors to benchmark the cost of the total employee benefit package to within 105 percent of comparable organizations.” Unionized workers are rejecting the CNS contract’s reduction of benefits that falls in line with DOE regulations. Prescription drugs, pension, and sick leave benefits are some points of contention for the workers. Thornberry also called on the DOE to address deferred maintenance at the plant: “With each visit to Pantex, I continue to be struck by the deplorable state of its infrastructure and facilities.”