The Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC) called a halt to all work at the Hanford Site tank farms Monday without mandatory use of a supplied air respirator to protect workers from chemical vapors.
“The Council hereby provides official notification that a standing stop work order is now in full force and effect until such time that all work inside the perimeter fences of any tank farm is performed while wearing mandatory supplied air,” said HAMTC President Dave Molnaa in a letter to tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). HAMTC is an umbrella group for 15 unions performing work at Hanford.
At the conclusion of the last work week, WRPS told HAMTC it would not honor the group’s demand that supplied air respirators be required for all work within tank farms. HAMTC had sent WRPS a list of demands June 20. On Monday, HAMTC pulled workers first from a double-shell tank farm in the 200 East Area and later in the day it pulled workers from the TX Tank Farm, when it learned workers in part of that single-shell tank farm were not wearing supplied air respirators.
HAMTC and WRPS have to reach an agreement before the stop work order can be lifted.
“We are honoring the HAMTC stop work order issued today,” said Mark Lindholm, WRPS president. The contractor said it will continue its evaluation of the feasibility of implementing the HAMTC demand regarding supplied air respirators. Last week WRPS said there was no data to support supplied air respirator use for routine work in double-shell tank farms and that it was not a recommendation of an independent review led by the Savannah River National Laboratory.
WRPS has offered to meet HAMTC’s demand that any work that disturbs tank waste be done either on night shifts or over Hanford’s three-day weekends after most workers have finished Monday through Thursday 10-hour shifts. Fewer workers would be at work to be exposed. But WRPS wants HAMTC to declare those regular shifts, which would not be paid at time and a half or double time. Molnaa responded Monday, saying that WRPS needs to send a detailed letter of request as required by the parties’ collective bargaining agreement for HAMTC to consider.
