With COVID-19 illnesses declining nationally, a United Steelworkers officer at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio wants Mid-America Conversion Services to reconsider an earlier decision to fire a handful of longtime employees who refused vaccination.
United Steelworkers Local 1-689 is negotiating a new contract with Mid-America to replace the one that expired Jan. 31, President Herman Potter said late last week. The local union has about 127 members in the bargaining unit who are continuing to work for Mid-America under terms of the old agreement while negotiations continue, Potter said.
In addition to traditional issues concerning pay and benefits, Potter said the union is also pushing Mid-America to reinstate three or four workers terminated for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The contractor makes it too difficult for workers to claim an exemption, on religious or medical grounds, from taking the vaccine, Potter said. In practice, the policy seems to be “’you have to be vaccinated or you don’t work here,’” Potter said.
The issue of COVID vaccination mandates for federal government contractors was scheduled to be argued this Friday before the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
In January the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Joe Biden administration from implementing an Occupational Safety and Health Administration program effectively requiring big companies to ensure all workers are either vaccinated or tested regularly for COVID-19. The high court did, however, uphold the administration’s mandatory vaccination rule for most employees at hospitals and healthcare facilities.
Mid-America is the Atkins-led contractor in charge of converting depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into a more stable uranium oxide. The ongoing labor talks affect only Local 1-689 Steelworkers members at the Portsmouth Site, not the Paducah Site in Kentucky, Potter said.
Mid-America Conversion Services said last month at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix to expect DUF6 work to resume at Portsmouth around June. The DUF6 plant at Portsmouth has been offline since March 2020 for a combination of plant upgrades and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Potter said the union is probably looking at a two-year extension of the contract, although that could be affected by the DOE’s procurement of a new DUF6 contractor.
