United Steelworkers local unions at five Department of Energy sites are urging elected officials from their states to intercede on their behalf against President Joe Biden’s plans for mandatory vaccinations of federal contractor employees.
“The government has not done a very good job of winning a large percentage of the public’s trust when it comes to vaccination,” according to a letter dated Sept. 17 from United Steelworkers (USW) locals at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, the Paducah Site in Kentucky and the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. “For instance, the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], nor our government credits natural immunity versus vaccination, which other countries merit as being equal to vaccination,” according to the letter addressed to governors and members of congress in the five states.
“The majority of our members do not agree with mandatory vaccination” and believe any such rule should provide exemptions for medical or religious reasons, according to the letter.
The letter said past mandates stemming from federal government action have enabled contractors to dictate implementation details “that have historically cost our members millions of dollars in lost wages and retirement funds.”
For example, USW Local 1-689 President Herman Potter said Monday his local is pursuing a grievance against remediation contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth for halting contributions to 401-K retirement plans when workers were sent home last March as COVID-19 started to spread across the country. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed by Congress said workers who could not telecommute would still get paid, but Fluor-BWXT did not interpret this to include employer contributions to the 401-K accounts.
Fluor-BWXT did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
In addition to the Portsmouth local, other USW local unions that signed onto the letter were Local 12-369 at Hanford, Local 12-652 at the Idaho lab, Local 8-550 in Paducah and Local 12-9477 at WIPP. The letter was sent to the governors in all five states, both members of the U.S. Senate from each state as well as members of the House of Representatives in the Congressional districts for each of the DOE sites.
