Nuke plant workers to sign new contract

LACEY, NEW JERSEY - Union leaders representing roughly 200 workers who operate and maintain the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant signed a four-year contract with management after members overwhelmingly voted in favor of the deal.

The contract extension provides for a 3.5 percent annual wage increase across the labor force and a three-year, no-layoff pledge from plant owner AmerGen. It also guarantees that retired workers receive the same health care benefits as active ones.

"It brings stability to the work force and lets us focus on the future instead of a contract," said Ed Stroup, president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 1289. "Now we can work for a license extension at Oyster Creek."

The extension, which would allow the oldest operating commercial reactor in the country to operate through 2029, is being sought by AmerGen from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Without one, the plant would close in 2009.

The IBEW is the only union at the plant and its members make up a large percentage of the roughly 440 people who work there. They are mechanics, control room operators, radiation technicians and office clerks. A great majority live in Ocean County.

The deal will allow AmerGen to "maintain focus" on plant operations, said plant spokeswoman Rachelle Benson.

In the fall of 2006, operations will include a biennial refueling outage - an opportunity to inspect and repair equipment usually off limits. Such tasks, which reactor owners attempt to perform as quickly as possible, require a great deal of coordination among employees.

The contract was accepted Sept. 29 by the labor force. It is also the same version of the contract that served as a tentative agreement between the parties.

In it, workers will get annual raises of 3.5 percent, a rate that Stroup said was in line with other union agreements. Union workers at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, for example, ratified a contract in May with annual raises of 3 and 3.5 percent.

The contract strengthens job security for union members who move within job categories and guarantees pay rates for employees with at least 20 years of experience who are reassigned.

This latest round of negotiations lasted several months and took union negotiators to Pennsylvania and Illinois, where AmerGen and its parent company Exelon has offices.

The talks were far more harmonious than last time, when workers went on strike for three months during the summer of 2003 over job cuts.

Since then, Stroup said union representatives have had several in- depth conversations with plant managers to help avoid that kind of discord.

"We've been working ever since the last strike, trying to develop a relationship with the company and improve the relationship between the parties," he said.

AmerGen also has done its part to strengthen ties.

Plant Manager Jim Randich meets frequently with union shop stewards, Benson said.

"It's to foster an open dialogue to get more issues on the table so they can be solved in a timely manner," she said.