NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
Hanford workers urged to lose jobs rather than get vaccine
Center, where DOE Hanford work-
ers and many contractors have
offices.
By ANNETTE CARY
Tri-City Herald
RICHLAND, Wash. — Several
hundred Hanford and Pacific North-
west National Laboratory workers
were urged to stand firm against a
federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate
at a rally last week in Richland,
Washington.
An estimated 16,000 workers
at Hanford and PNNL who are
paid with federal public money are
required to be vaccinated against
COVID-19 or receive a religious
or medical exemption to keep their
jobs.
“In the end what counts is not
ditching your values for high-pay-
ing jobs,” said Ben Stafford, who
said he was among workers who
could lose their jobs.
The deadline for the majority of
those workers — employees of the
Department of Energy’s contractors
and subcontractors at Hanford —
have until Dec. 8 to show they are
fully vaccinated against the virus.
Luis Ojeda, owner of a small
business that does Hanford subcon-
tracting, said he was “willing to lose
everything” rather than enforce the
vaccine mandate.
“I will not ask for a vaccine
card,” he told the crowd. “I will not
violate medical privacy.”
He said he believes the vaccine
requirement is not constitutional.
“We the people will not live in
fear over mandates the government
will throw on us,” he said.
The two-hour rally was in a park-
ing lot on Stevens Drive in Rich-
land, across the street from Stevens
Vaccine mandate lawsuits
“Do not tolerate tyranny,” urged
Republican Rep. Brad Klippert, a
sheriff’s deputy from Kennewick,
at the rally.
He argued most people who
contract COVID-19 survive the
disease.
Two attorneys said they were
working on filing lawsuits on behalf
of Hanford and PNNL workers.
Hanford employs about 11,000
people for $2.5 billion in annual
work on environmental cleanup of
the 580-square-mile site adjoining
the Tri-Cities in Eastern Washington.
Plutonium for the nation’s nuclear
weapons program was produced
there throughout the Cold War.
PNNL, a Department of Energy
research laboratory, employs more
than 5,000 people, most based in
Richland. Battelle, which holds the
contract to operate the national lab,
is requiring workers to be vacci-
nated or have an approved exemp-
tion by Nov. 15, ahead of the federal
mandate.
The Silent Majority Foundation
announced plans for a class action
lawsuit in October, and the nonprof-
it’s director and lead attorney Pete
Serrano said at the rally he hoped
to file the lawsuit within the next 10
days.
About 150 Hanford and PNNL
workers have signed up as plaintiffs,
said Serrano, who also is a Pasco
city councilor.
Tracy Tribbett, an attorney with
Jennifer King/Tri-City Herald
Washington state Rep. Brad Klippert, R-Kennewick, speaks to hundreds of
people who gathered in a north Richland parking lot along Stevens Drive
on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021, to rally against the federal vaccine mandate
on behalf of Hanford and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers.
the Pacific Justice Institute in Seat-
tle, said she also was looking to file
lawsuits on behalf of Hanford and
PNNL employees.
The Southern Poverty Law
Centercalls Pacific Justice Institute
a hate group, based on its anti-LGBT
stands, but the institute describes
itself as a legal organization special-
izing in the defense of religious free-
dom and other civil liberties.
Tribbett said her lawsuits would
take a different tack than the Silent
Majority Foundation and the two
different legal strategies would
complement each other.
“All of you can band together and
walk out of your jobs to show that
your employers need you more than
you need them,” she said.
Vaccine opposition
Much of the rally was devoted
to testimonials, some submitted in
writing and then read to the crowd,
from people who believed they or
Forecast for Pendleton Area
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Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Maricopa, Ariz. Low 7° in Stanley, Idaho
Union County to host MERA
forest management field review
DICK MASON AND
DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
Breezy in the
morning
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
family members had been harmed
by the COVID-19 vaccine.
One example was a person who
was vaccinated and shortly after-
ward was diagnosed with abdomi-
nal pain diagnosed as diverticulitis.
In most cases, people said doctors
did not confirm that illnesses were
related to the vaccine.
The Benton Franklin Health
District said that no resident of
Benton and Franklin counties has
died from the vaccine.
Since early this year when the
vaccine was widely available,
however, more than 200 people in
the Tri-Cities area have died from
complications of COVID-19, say
health officials.
Data through September shows
all but 16 of those who died were
unvaccinated or not fully vacci-
nated.
Among the speakers at the rally
was Dr. Wei-Hsung Lin of West
Richland, who is among the small
minority of doctors who believes
the COVID-19 vaccine is not safe
and effective.
He immigrated from China at
age 24, and he likened the vaccine
mandates to that country’s former
policy of allowing couples to have
only one child, with enforcement
that ranged from fines to abortions
and sterilization.
“Now we are living in a situation
where our government is going to
enforce something to be introduced
into our body without our consent
or we would have to lose our job,”
he said.
PNNL said when it announced
its COVID-19 vaccine require-
ment in September that 86% of its
employees had at least one dose of
the vaccine then.
The Department of Energy has
declined to say how many Hanford
nuclear reservation workers have
provided proof of vaccination.
“Like other federal agencies, we
are continuing to collect vaccination
information from employees as we
approach the deadline,” DOE said
in a statement Wednesday, Nov. 3.
Hanford employees who work for
DOE have an earlier vaccine dead-
line, Nov. 22, than federal contrac-
tor and subcontractor employees at
the site.
On Oct. 28 a stop-work order
filed by an employee concerned
about COVID-19 controls led to a
work stoppage at at one contractor,
Hanford Mission Integration Solu-
tions.
Workers who have a safety
complaint can ask that work be
stopped until it is resolved.
LA GRANDE — The
Union County Board of
Commissioners will take
public input on what could be a
major forest management proj-
ect at the Mount Emily Recre-
ation Area.
The meeting will serve as
a field review for a potential
commercial timber harvest
plan that would take place in
the winter and spring of 2022.
The plan would involve clos-
ing portions MERA for timber
harvest in the Red Apple area
for the primary purpose of
reducing fire risk and improv-
ing forest health.
Local residents can
particpate and ask questions at
the Owsley Canyon Trailhead
at noon Wednesday, Nov. 10.
“We want input,” Commis-
sioner Paul Anderes said.
‘It needs to be managed’
It has been about 15 years
since the Red Apple area was
logged.
“It needs to be managed,”
said Forrest Warren, a member
of the MERA advisory
committee.
Forest management work is
needed to reduce tree density
and the build up of fuels to cut
the risk of high intensity fires.
Work will involve the removal
of dead and diseased trees.
Warren said he believes
some healthy trees also might
have to be logged to allow for
the project to be profitable for
the company removing them.
“To make it financially
feasible some good trees will
have to be taken out,” he said.
Warren said from a finan-
cial standpoint it might be best
to do the thinning now because
the price of timber is up. Still,
Warren said, this is not some-
thing that should be rushed
into.
“It is easy to do something
that will take a long time to
IF YOU GO
What: Field review
opportunity for planned
forest management of
Red Apple Project at
MERA
Where: Owsley
Canyon Trailhead
When: Wednesday,
Nov. 10, at noon
Additional infor-
mation: Union County
MERA, 541-963-1319
heal,” he said. “It is important
not to do something that takes
10 years to heal up so that it
looks like a forest again.”
Warren said it is important
that the thinning and removal
of fuels and other forest
management be done, but he
does not believe it is essential
that it be done this winter.
“Forest management is a
long-term thing,” he said.
Coming under fire
Warren said steps already
have been taken in recent years
to thin trees and remove fuels
in the Red Apple area and
reduce fuel loads, something
he credited the county with.
The original project was
proposed in the fall of 2020,
with an emphasis on logging,
precommercial thinning and
fuels treatment. That proposal
showed that approximately
190 acres of the recreation
area would be logged, as well
as follow-up commercial
thinning and damaged tree
removal.
The county purchased the
nearly 3,700 acres of land at
MERA in 2008, with the $4.65
million cost being financed by
grants from the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department’s
all-terrain vehicle program
and the Blue Mountain Habi-
tat Restoration Council. The
Union County Parks Depart-
ment and the MERA Advisory
Committee manage MERA’s
trails.
The project has drawn
criticism from some, such
as Friends of Mount Emily
Recreation Area. The group,
along with other voices in the
community, have noted the
logging could have an adverse
effect on the well-being of
recreational trails as well as
winter recreation activities.
Bart Barlow, a former
member of the MERA Advi-
sory Committee, said fire
mitigation is important at
the recreation area but the
proposed logging could be
detrimental.
“I’m not opposed to logging
or forest management, but it
needs to be done right for the
recreation area,” he said. “The
more information the county
can get out, the more people
can get involved in things.”
Warren said he believes it is
critical to keep MERA as a site
that offers recreational oppor-
tunities to so many. He noted it
is an important part of Union
County’s economic engine
because it draws in so many
people from outside the area.
“What MERA means to
our economy is huge,” he said.
Warren also said some resi-
dents have told him MERA is
the reason they live in Union
County.
There is no definitive time-
line in place for when the forest
management project would
begin, but the field review
meeting will likely provide
answers from the county.
The meeting also serves as an
opportunity for public input
and Q&A.
Anderes said the work
would be done in the winter
since the snow and ice cover
often present would limit the
impact tree removal work
would have on soil. He said
he wants MERA managed for
forest health, fire resiliency
and for the purpose of main-
taining the recreation oppor-
tunities it provides.
“Our objective is to leave it
better than we found it,” Ande-
res said.
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