Staff Reports
NS&D Monitor
12/18/2015
A transition of leadership is underway at the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, which represents more than 2,000 workers at the Department of Energy facilities at Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Steve Jones, ATLC president and a key member of the team that negotiated new collective bargaining agreements at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex in recent months, is retiring and didn’t seek re-election to his post.
ATLC Second Vice President Mike Thompson, who rose through the ranks of the Teamsters union and has been on the ATLC leadership team in recent years, will assume the top spot. He and other ATLC officers were elected by acclamation at a meeting of the organization’s member unions’ delegates earlier this month.
Besides Thompson, others elected were Wayne Bolinger (chemical workers) as vice president for ORNL; Eric Nolan (insulators) as VP for Y-12; Steve Passmore (machinists) as recording secretary; and Doug Harrill (electricians) secretary/treasurer.
The negotiations of new contracts – four years at ORNL, five years at Y-12 – was a high point in Jones’ union career. “I told my council I appreciated the opportunity to have this job. Not everybody gets to be president of the ATLC,” he said.
Jones said the union workforce is in good shape in Oak Ridge, where ATLC is the largest labor organization. “Our members make good wages and benefits, and just knowing they’ve got good insurance and good benefits and make more than a living wage,” he said. “These are the best jobs around by far.”
Thompson did not indicate there were be any major changes at the union in the coming months. He said he would take some of the lessons learned from his predecessors and use them as he leads the unions at the Oak Ridge plants.
He said relationships with federal contractors are built over time.
“You have to figure out who you can (trust) and who you can’t,” he said.
