Members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21 on Friday voted down the latest contract proposal from the landlord contractor at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site in Washington state, both parties said.
“We understand the HGU [Hanford Guards Union] vote on our latest offer failed,” a spokesperson from Hanford Mission Integration Solutions (HMIS) said late Friday in an email response to an Exchange Monitor inquiry.
“The vote was 99% against the company’s proposal,” local union president Chris Hall said in a Sunday email to the Monitor. “They raised it [the pay scale] by half of one percent the first year and didn’t address the other non-financial issues.”
The unionized armed security patrol has been locked out of their jobs at the cleanup site for the former plutonium production complex since Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving. Union and HMIS bargainers engaged in talks last week with assistance from a federal mediator. The prior contract ended Nov. 1 and was extended until Nov. 27.
In addition to issues such as wages, benefits and arbitration, local union president Hall has said his members want “medical autonomy,” or the right to decide themselves about taking any future vaccinations or medical procedures.
Many Hanford guards took part in an unsuccessful legal challenge to the COVID-19 vaccination policy for DOE contractors at Hanford during the pandemic. With the end of the pandemic, DOE is no longer seeking information from site workers on their vaccination status.
The current labor dispute affects the two-thirds of Hanford security people who are members of the guard’s union, HMIS said. The one-third that are non-union salaried employees remain on the job, according to HMIS.
In addition, many guard supervisors from Hanford and other DOE sites have been brought in during the lockout, according to the contractor. HMIS is made up of Leidos, Centerra and Parsons.
