Depot workers consider union

This story was published Tue, Apr 16, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- Workers at the Umatilla Chemical Depot's incinerator don't have to worry much about job security. It could take a decade or longer to destroy the 3,717 tons of deadly chemical weapons stored at the site.

However, incinerator workers said health and safety issues are reasons enough to form a union. Nearly 170 employees voted late Monday on whether to join the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701.

If the vote favors the union, they would be the first group of employees of Washington Demilitarization Co. to unionize, said Rick Kelley, company spokesman.

The company has contracted with the Army to build and operate the Umatilla facility. There are no unions at the other Army incineration sites at Johnston Atoll, Pine Bluff, Ark., Toole, Utah, and Anniston, Ala.

Kelley said if workers vote to join the union, company officials will work with the union.

The secret ballots, which were cast at the depot Monday, will not be counted until April 30 because several incinerator employees were out of town for training, said Jim O'Connor, general counsel for the union.

O'Connor said he expects the vote to favor the union.

"There are never any sure bets ... but if the vote goes the way we think, it won't even be close," O'Connor said.

Unionizing would give negotiating power to the 170 employees who will be providing technical support, maintenance and operating the depot's incinerators, O'Connor said.

On average, a person who makes $20 an hour would pay $50 a month in union dues, he said.

A no-strike clause will be included in the employees' contracts, but that doesn't mean they wouldn't have any negotiating ability, O'Connor said.

"It's really a simplistic idea to think the only way unions help people is to take them out on strike," he said.

He said many of the workers feel they are inadequately trained for the tasks they will face once the plant is operating. He noted the only plant to have burned chemical weapons like those at Umatilla is the Johnston Atoll plant, 700 miles southwest of Hawaii.

O'Connor said wages and benefits such as health insurance also are issues.

But at least one incinerator employee, who didn't want to be identified for fear of retribution, said he intended to vote against the union.

"We don't need a union. We are not underpaid or overworked," he said.

"An unskilled worker starts at $18.71 an hour. Where else are you going to make that kind of wage to be trained for a job?" he asked.

He also insisted that claims about the burn facility being unsafe are bogus. "There are no safety hazards here. No one's ever been carried out in an ambulance."

And the only folks overworked are those who volunteer for overtime, he added.

"It's not being forced on anyone."

 

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