United Steelworkers Local 1-689 President Herman Potter fears the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio could have a tough time filling vacancies in the near future due to a combination of factors.
With the existing workforce at or approaching retirement age, looming brownfield projects driving a need to hire fresh hands and an impending contract change-over at DOE, hiring could get harder before it gets easier, said Herman Potter, the head of the union local with about 1,000 members at the DOE site.
At the same time, the union has yet to strike a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement with cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth three months after its last two-year extension expired, Potter said.
Also, the local rumor mill suggests DOE might select a new Decontamination and Decommissioning contractor “in a couple of weeks” to succeed the Fluor-led incumbent, Potter added Wednesday.
Potter told Exchange Monitor by phone he hopes announcement of the new Portsmouth cleanup contract, which could be worth up to $5.87-billion could hasten a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement. The Portsmouth cleanup solicitation was issued in May 2022.
Meanwhile, the Steelworkers Local 1-689 members continue to work while union and company bargainers seek to reach a new labor contract, Potter said.
The average age of the unionized workforce at Portsmouth is probably 57-to-58-years and 12% of them are probably eligible to retire, Potter said. Meanwhile, a net gain of “a few hundred jobs” could occur around the Portsmouth Site in the next few years, Potter said.
The union official cites several potential projects announced in and around the DOE site.
Centrus Energy is making plans to eventually produce high assay low-enriched uranium at the former gaseous diffusion plant complex. Also DOE is exploring the idea of recovering nickel at Portsmouth that could be cleaned up and used for commercial purposes. Finally, a California company wants to build a couple of small modular reactors at Portsmouth to generate electricity.
“It’s a good problem to have,” Potter said of the potential new employment. It’s possible many of the greybeards at the DOE site might defer retirement “because the money is good” but it is also possible some federal training incentives will be needed to bring in new people, Potter said.
