Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
09/11/2015
Today, about 1,100 unionized Pantex workers entered the 14th day of a labor strike in which contract negotiations between the Metal Trades Council and plant management contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security have remained deadlocked and shown no signs of progress, CNS and MTC said yesterday. “At this point, we have no comment,” said MTC President Clarence Rashada, reached by phone yesterday. “Nothing’s happening.” In an apparent jab at CNS, another local union official accused the company of “wanting to gut” MTC’s heretofore contract. "There hasn’t been a strike at Pantex since 1970,” Pam George, president of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU), one of 10 unions that MTC represents, said in a statement. "We’ve always been able to negotiate a fair contract for these workers, but CNS is a new contractor who wants to gut our contract. Our members are prepared to stay on strike until a fair and reasonable contract can be reached."
CNS did not provide any new details or perspective on the situation at Pantex. Company spokesman Steve Myers on Wednesday said in an email that: “There are no new updates or statements.”
A knowledgeable official said either or both parties could potentially start inching toward the bargaining table next week “at the earliest.” On Day 2 of the strike, Rashada predicted a two- to three-week lapse before talks resumed. The roughly one-third of Pantex’s general workforce that is striking is fed up with proposed benefit reductions that they say is being propelled by the Energy Department’s requirement for contractors to submit a biennial Employee Benefit Value Study (BenVal) that is no more than 5 percent higher than the average value of the assessed benefits package of comparator organizations, according to DOE. If CNS pays more than that amount on benefits, it would have to submit a conformance action plan to DOE.
“These workers face dangerous situations every day when they go to work. The Department of Energy and CNS Pantex know that these workers risk exposure to cancer-causing chemicals daily, yet the DOE has imposed a ridiculous policy upon its contractors that limits benefits based on a flawed market-based value formula,” Ron Ault, President of the Metal Trades Department of AFL-CIO, of which MTC is a member, said in a statement.
Eighty-seven percent of unionized workers at the nuclear-warhead assembly/disassembly site on Aug. 28 voted to strike and reject a “best and revised final offer” by CNS, which followed more than seven months of contract negotiations and rejection of the original “best and final offer” early last month. MTC-represented workers had declined to act upon a recommendation by council leadership to accept the revised contract, according to Rashada. The revised offer would have frozen sick leave hours accrued until Jan. 1, effective on that date, but would have provided 40 hours of annual personal leave that could be used for personal illness or injury, according to the documents. Unused personal leave could be banked year-to-year up to a maximum of 80 hours. Unionized Pantex employees can currently accumulate up to 1,600 total hours in sick leave, and re-accumulate after using those hours.
“They killed that,” a union official said about CNS management’s recent benefit proposals. “You can’t accrue anymore. They can freeze that and you can use it, but when you use it up, it’s gone.” Health, sick leave, prescription drug and pension benefits are among the issues frustrating the site’s employees.
Thornberry Hopes for Quick Accord
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) during a Capitol Hill press gaggle this week declined to suggest potential solutions for the negotiation impasse, but he said he hopes the parties swiftly hammer out a deal so the U.S. can maintain credible nonproliferation and nuclear weapons programs. “I certainly do not get involved in the negotiations, and I frankly have no idea, and have not wanted to know, what the points of contention are during the negotiations,” Thornberry said. “Now my bottom line is I hope that it’s resolved quickly because it’s the only place in the country that assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons. It provides surveillance over our stockpile, and it’s a key asset for the country.”
