‘Union Busting’ Charged at Nuclear Weapons Plant : Steel workers: Former head of union local says he feels betrayed by President Clinton, targets firm running the facility and Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary in particular.
On Jim Kelly’s office wall, there are photos of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Jimmy Carter. There is no picture of Bill Clinton--although Kelly helped elect him.
Kelly is the former president of the United Steel Workers Assn., Local 8031, representing workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant. And he feels Clinton has betrayed his members.
“Bill Clinton signed my hat at the airport. I’m on the verge of sending it back--and that’s tough for me to say,” Kelly said.
Kelly accuses EG&G; Corp., the company now running Rocky Flats for the U.S. Department of Energy, and Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary of union-busting--forcing union members out of their jobs or into non-union jobs.
“Bill Clinton’s got a secretary of energy that’s a union buster. We elected a Democrat and a friend of labor! Al Gore was a proven friend of labor!” Kelly said. “We really thought that we were going to have someone in there that would look out for the Cold War veterans.”
EG&G; and Energy Department officials deny the union-busting charge. They say workers are “in denial”--accustomed to the extravagant salaries of the arms race, they are refusing to accept defense cutbacks after the end of the Cold War.
“The bottom line is to align the work force where the work is. We’re no longer a production site. There’s a new mission here,” said EG&G; spokesman Jeff Schwartz. “The work we’ll be doing in the future is not what we were doing in the past.”
Built in 1951, Rocky Flats made plutonium triggers for nuclear weapons until production was suspended in 1989 because of safety concerns. The Cold War ended before operations could resume. When production was at its highest, Rocky Flats employed more than 7,770 people.
About 14 1/2 tons of plutonium is still stored at Rocky Flats, one of the world’s highest concentrations. There are 20 so-called “infinity rooms,” places so contaminated that human beings shouldn’t be in them. A government study said nearly $30 million in plant property is missing.
Under O’Leary, DOE is being restructured to focus on dismantling nuclear weapons, developing renewable energy sources and cleaning up former weapons production facilities.
That meant job cuts at Rocky Flats, although officials promised many would be saved under a cleanup program. Early 1992 estimates predicted 4,100 jobs would be cut from Rocky Flats’ work force.
Although those estimates have proved too high, the work force is significantly changing, union leaders say. Many employees who had been “hourly,” or union members, have been forced to switch to “salaried,” or non-union.
In a December, 1993, survey by the union, there were 2,100 hourly workers and 4,400 salaried employees.
So far, EG&G; reports 101 hourly workers have been laid off. The union said that figure is misleading because so many have been switched to salaried jobs.
Union leaders paint a gloomy picture of the thinning union ranks. They say workers will lose necessary bargaining and negotiating powers--they’ve been working without a contract since October.
While EG&G; and DOE officials point to a retraining program that helps workers move from extinct positions to new jobs, union leaders say the retraining is only for people who quit the union, take pay cuts and aren’t considered “problem” workers.
Workers sometimes are not hired even after the retraining courses, union officials say. “They’re telling people left and right, ‘You’re not qualified,’ ” said Dennis Wise, current president of the Local 8031.
Gary Laura, a Jefferson County commissioner, agrees Rocky Flats officials are trying to break the union.
“What they’re doing is either: ‘You take this job or . . . ,’ ” he said. “It’s a way of forcing people out of the organization.”
But Laura said the workers are “just going to have to face the hard, cold reality like people in the auto industry did.”
“That sounds pretty cold, but I think the economy is strong enough in Colorado that these people will find other employment,” he said.
Rocky Flats workers, on average, make $42,000 a year, much higher than the community average of $24,000. Traditionally, the government has picked up the tab for employee health care plans, and workers are angry that they will begin making co-payments in 1995.
Mark Silverman, the new head of DOE at Rocky Flats, admits there are problems between the union, salaried workers and management. But he defends his work with the union and bristles at the union-busting charges.
“I’ve been in the government for over 30 years. I’ve never seen an Administration more actively try to work with the unions--in my 30 years--than this Administration is doing. Never. Ever. I meet with the unions several times a week,” he said.
EG&G; and DOE officials say most people are happy to switch to a salaried position because they need the job and don’t care “which side of the aisle” they’re on.
Kelly has heard it before. He sympathizes with workers who feel pressured to take a salaried job or get fired. After all, he said, he’s a practical man.
“They’re scared,” Kelly said. “I say, ‘Do what you gotta do to keep food on your table.’ ”
