Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/2/2015
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 Sept. 25 letter 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.” Following a visit to the site last year, Thornberry noted poor working conditions for engineers at a high-explosives testing facility, including a leaking roof. NNSA Administrator Frank Klotz also highlighted problems with the plant’s aging buildings and faulty electrical systems after visiting the plant, according to media reports from the time of the visit.
Thornberry encouraged continued support for the Pantex Administrative Support Complex to pursue “an alternative financing arrangement that will provide modern, efficient office spaces for almost a third of the Pantex workforce.” He also noted construction of a High Explosive Science and Engineering Facility, which would “enable hundreds of Pantex’s highly trained engineers and scientists to relocate from decrepit and inefficient 1950s-era laboratories and offices and move into modern facilities.” Calling on DOE to complete the facility’s final design in fiscal 2017 so that construction can begin the following year, Thornberry said, “Requiring these highly trained and sought after professionals to work in such substandard buildings cannot continue if we hope to attract and retain an exceptional workforce at Pantex.” The letter requests that the DOE update the committee on the status of the Administrative Support Complex and High Explosive Science and Engineering Facility projects by Nov. 30. The NNSA declined to comment on the correspondence.
