March 17, 2014

WILL PORTS. D&D WORKERS GO HUNGRY UNDER DOE PLAN?

By ExchangeMonitor

Sen. Sherrod Brown is calling on the Department of Energy to reconsider plans to target the cafeteria at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant as one of the initial site facilities to be closed as part of D&D efforts there. In a letter sent last week to Under Secretary of Energy for Nuclear Security Tom D’Agostino, Brown expressed concern for “the general welfare” of workers at the Portsmouth site, questioning what he said was DOE’s plan to close the site cafeteria and to replace it with vending machines. “The site has more than 2,300 workers. Cleanup will take at least a decade. There are more than 300 buildings onsite. Yet DOE has chosen the cafeteria to be one of the first buildings closed. I ask that you revisit this decision and work with the workforce to provide access to safe and healthy food and facilities,” wrote Brown, who has been a strong advocate for cleanup efforts at the Portsmouth site.

Brown also continued to push DOE on the issue of benefits for workers who transferred from USEC, which is the former leaseholder of the Portsmouth site, to D&D contractor Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC. The local Steelworkers union has raised concerns that the former USEC workers are being improperly kept out of the benefit plan previously established for Portsmouth’s cleanup contractors, which the local union has said provides better benefits than the plan FBP has established for new hires. “The Department has had ample time to work with the local workforce on this issue,” Brown wrote, asking D’Agostino to work with the site workforce “to correct this problem.” In his letter, Brown also questioned DOE’s proposed funding cut for safeguards and security activities at the Portsmouth site, writing, “Robust security around nuclear sites is not just a line item on an expense sheet, it is a national imperative. At the Portsmouth site, nuclear materials site within a few yards of existing fence line and access roads, heightening the need for a professional and well trained security presence.”

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