Alissa Tabirian
NS&D Monitor
10/2/2015
Days after a federal mediator intervened to facilitate labor negotiations between the contractor of the Pantex Plant and unionized workers, negotiations have been temporarily paused. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) announced on Sept. 25 that negotiations were “temporarily recessed . . . to give the parties an opportunity to review new information and engage in internal discussions.” The statement does not indicate the type of new information and notes that the organizations involved will not discuss the talks with the press.
The pause comes a month after more than 1,000 employees at the nuclear-weapon assembly and disassembly plant represented by the Metal Trades Council began to strike in rejection of a final contract offer by site managing contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS). When their collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of August, 87 percent of the plant’s unionized workers voted against CNS’ “best and revised final offer” due to its reduction of employee benefits. According to the latest announcement, the parties are expected to reconvene sometime this week. CNS spokesman Steve Myers said in a statement that “Because of the sensitivity and the critical importance of the discussions, both the employer and the unions have agreed to a request by FMCS to refrain from commenting to the news media regarding the status and substance of the talks.”
