A United Steelworkers local president at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio expects about 100 of his members employed by cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth will be sent home in the coming week, with firings coming a few weeks afterward, for refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The workers who for various reasons don’t want to be inoculated against the virus, are expected to turn in their site badges to Fluor-BWXT on Thursday, Nov. 18, United Steelworkers (USW) Local Union 1-689 Herman Potter told Weapons Complex Monitor Friday by phone.
Based on his talks with the decontamination and decommissioning contractor, Potter understand the workers will be essentially suspended with intent to terminate for “insubordination,” for refusing to comply with the vaccination policy issued by the federal contractor as an outgrowth of executive orders issued in September by President Joe Biden.
Fluor-BWXT did not immediately respond to a request for comment at deadline on Friday.
In letters dated this week and shared with Ohio state and federal elected officials, Potter wrote to Fluor-BWXT labor relations officials and argued the federal workplace safety guidance on vaccine mandates should not automatically become part of existing contracts. The USW official also contends Fluor-BWXT could, under the DOE guidance, be far more generous in granting religious and medical exemptions than it has to date.
“However, it appears contractor management is taking a hardline aggressive stance,” Potter said in an email. The USW official said in the letters the union local is asking for the termination date to be pushed back into January and that the unvaccinated be provided with more educational material on the various COVID-19 vaccines.
“All federal contractor employees — including those within DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and the National Nuclear Security Administration — covered by President Biden’s Executive Order 14042 are receiving additional time to get vaccinated,” a spokesperson for the Department of Energy said via email Friday. “They need to have their final vaccination dose by Jan. 4 to ensure they are fully vaccinated by Jan. 18.”
