NOV. 20, 2009:NWLP
11/17/09
9:47 AM
Page 2
Umatilla chemical depot workers to get $3.6 million backpay
HERMISTON — As many as 900
current and former workers at the
Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Fa-
cility are expected to get backpay
checks totaling $3.6 million, thanks to
some serious union persistence.
URS EG&G — the contractor in
charge of incinerating chemical
weapons — appears ready to settle a
long-running dispute over payment for
putting on and removing safety gear,
and irregular meal and rest breaks.
URS is a 47,000-employee con-
struction and engineering firm, and a
major military contractor. Its EG&G di-
vision has a contract with the U.S.
Army to run the Umatilla facility — a
complex of buildings at the 19,728-acre
Umatilla Chemical Depot, six miles
west of Hermiston, Oregon.
There, workers disassemble muni-
tions and incinerate chemical agents like
sarin nerve gas and HD mustard gas.
Operating Engineers Local 701 rep-
resents about 170 munitions handlers
and control room and plant operators,
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while International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 112 represents
about 130 maintenance workers. The
two bargain jointly as the Demilitariza-
tion Trades Council. A group of 14
warehouse employees are represented
by Laborers Local 121 under a separate
contract.
Work at the facility goes on 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. Since 2004,
they’ve burned through all the nerve
gas, and are on track to dispose of the
mustard gas by 2012, the deadline un-
der an international treaty.
Because the chemicals are highly
lethal, security and safety procedures
are stringent. Workers drive up to a
guard station, where their vehicle and
person are subject to search. Then they
drive several miles into the base, park,
and enter a “mask trailer,” where they
are given a military grade gas mask and
syringes. Next they pass through a dou-
ble turnstile and several doors, present a
badge at another guard station, and
check in with a supervisor. Finally, they
enter a dressing room, don protective
clothing, including special coveralls,
and head to their work station.
The practice was to start paying
workers at the dressing room.
Union members didn’t think that
was fair.
“We maintained that putting on these
masks and getting through the gates are
work-related activities,” said Nelda Wil-
son assistant business manager of Glad-
stone-based Local 701.
The Trades Council wrote letters to
the company and to the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor in 2003, asking if it was
legal that workers weren’t being paid
for the time they spent donning and
doffing protective gear. Those queries
went nowhere, Wilson says. The com-
pany replied with verbal assurances that
the practice was legal. DOL failed to
pursue it.
The Trades Council also complained
about irregular, uncompensated and
sometimes missed meal and rest breaks.
Workers couldn’t leave their machines
unattended, and weren’t always relieved
for periods up to eight hours. And work-
ers were considered on-call during their
half-hour meal breaks, which were un-
paid even though they weren’t allowed
to leave the premises.
Then last year, a Local 701 steward
came across startling information on the
Internet: URS EG&G had agreed in
January to pay $4.1 million to settle a
class-action lawsuit over the same is-
sues at a facility in Utah. URS EG&G
operates similar incineration sites, non-
union, at Johnston Atoll in the South Pa-
cific, Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Tooele,
Utah; and Anniston, Alabama.
Local 701 got in touch with the
plaintiffs lawyers, who shared a “smok-
ing gun” memo they had obtained dur-
ing the lawsuit’s discovery process. In
the Dec. 17, 2002 memo, an human re-
sources manager writes that EG&G had
been in contact with the Department of
Labor, which recommended that the
shift begin and end when workers got
to the mask trailer.
The Trades Council let URS EG&G
know they expected a settlement too.
It was quite a challenge getting the
company to bargain, Wilson said, but in
the end the unions negotiated backpay,
plus benefit contributions for every shift
worked from February 2006 to Febru-
ary 2008. Checks could range from
$3,000 to $20,000, depending on the
wage rates and the number of shifts.
Local 701 members will be paid the
equivalent of 48 minutes of work for
each shift. They average $25 an hour in
the six-year agreement that runs
through Oct. 31, 2013.
All told, the settlement will affect
about 900 current and former employ-
ees, both union and nonunion, a com-
pany representative told Wilson.
Employees could have filed suit on
their own to seek backpay for a longer
period, based on the argument that the
violations were “willful.” But URS
EG&G agreed to pay for lunch breaks
going forward. The changes mean a
more humane work day for Local 701
members, who rotate through 12-hour
shifts.
Since February 2009, workers have
punched in and out on a time clock at
the mask trailer. Starting this month,
they’re getting paid for lunch breaks.
“Now we get paid for donning and
doffing our masks, and we get paid for
lunch,” said Local 701 Representative
Rod Osgood, who used to work at the
plant. “It makes our work day an hour
shorter, which is pretty substantial in
my book.”
The tentative deal was to be finalized
Nov. 17, after this issue went to press.
Labor reacts to Washington election results
On election night, labor activists
throughout Washington rejoiced at vot-
ers’ rejection of a ballot initiative spon-
sored by longtime union adversary Tim
Eyman. I-1033 would have placed
strict limits on government spending,
cutting billions of dollars out of state
and local budgets that pay for educa-
tion, health and public safety.
The measure had 54 percent support
in Clark County, but just 42 percent
statewide.
In Southwest Washington, Vancou-
ver City Council member Tim Leavitt,
38, was elected mayor, defeating in-
cumbent Royce Pollard with nearly 54
percent of the vote.
Pollard, 70, has served as mayor of
“Vancouver USA” for 14 years.
Labor was divided on its support of
the candidates, resulting in no endorse-
ment action by the Clark, Skamania,
West Klickitat Labor Council.
Leavitt’s supporters included Amal-
gamated Transit Union Local 757,
UNITE HERE Local 9, AFSCME Lo-
cal 307 VC, and the Vancouver Police
Officers Guild, while Pollard was en-
dorsed by Vancouver Fire Fighters Lo-
cal 452, District 6 Fire Fighters Local
1805, International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers Local 48, Interna-
Q
tional Longshore and Warehouse Union
Local 4, Painters District Council 5,
Iron Workers Local 29, Iron Workers
Shopmen’s Local 516, Cement Masons
Local 555, and the Washington Ma-
chinists Council.
For Vancouver City Council, labor-
endorsed Jack Burkman won 53 to 46
percent. And Jeanne Harris won with
backing from Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 757, Vancouver Fire Fight-
ers Local 452, and IBEW Local 48; the
labor council had backed challenger
Anne McEnerny-Ogle.
For Battle Ground City Council, in-
cumbent Bill Ganley won re-election
with Labor Council endorsement, as did
Michael Ciraulo, who ran unopposed.
But Labor Council-backed candidates
Adrian Cortes and Michael Dalesandro
lost their races.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NOVEMBER 20, 2009