The International Guards Union of America, Local 3, has agreed on a new five-year labor agreement with Consolidated Nuclear Security — the government’s managing contractor at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.
The agreement covers about 45 employees, including Central Alarm Station and Beta-9 operators and instructors at the Central Training Facility. The new contract includes a 15 percent pay increase over the lifetime of the contract, with a 3 percent hike in each of the five years.
Shannon Gray, president of Local 3, said the workers ratified the new contract on Sunday evening by a “very large” margin. He said he was pleasantly surprised by the tenor of the negotiations over the past three weeks.
“I’ll be honest. I was really apprehensive going into it with everything that’s going on at Pantex (where Metal Trades Council workers are on strike),” Gray said. He also noted the tension among the non-bargaining employees at Y-12 regarding benefit reductions.
While the IGUA gave up some things during the negotiations, the union chief said he thought the talks were reasonable and successful.
This reportedly was the first of the Y-12 collective-bargaining agreements to be negotiated with Consolidated Nuclear Security, which took over management of the Oak Ridge plant on July 1, 2014.
It’s one of the smaller contracts, too. The IGUA, Local 3, has a much larger contract that covers about 500 security police officers at Y-12 that won’t expire until 2018. Gray said he hopes the first negotiation will set a tone for future contract talks with CNS.
He acknowledged that workers gave up some things regarding the benefits, with the introduction of multi-option health plans and employee contributions to the pension plan.
The company wanted employees to contribute 2 percent to the pension, and the ultimate agreement was for 0.5 percent in the first year, followed by 1 percent each of the next four years, Gray said.
There also was some reduction of the company’s contributions on the 401 (k) plans. Previously, the match was 100 percent on the first 6 percent. CNS reportedly wanted to knock a couple of percentage points off that, and there was a compromise at 5 percent.
In an internal message to employees Y-12, CNS said it was pleased to announce the successful conclusion to the negotiations with the IGUA. The new contract will expire Sept. 8, 2020.
Still pending is word on negotiations with the Atomic Trades and Labor Council, which represents most of the hourly crafts workers at Y-12. The current contract is due to expire Sept. 21, with no talks yet scheduled.
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