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Nuclear Fuel Defense Contractor Seeks to ‘Implement’ Pension Elimination at Struck Plant; Workers Say Bush Administration Should Intervene

For Immediate Release                                      September 11, 2006

PITTSBURGH -- The United Steelworkers (USW) today charged that Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) of Erwin, Tennessee is trying to eliminate the workers’ pension plan and force other changes in conditions of employment at the struck plant, which supplies the United States Navy with nuclear fuel.

NFS notified union representatives in a letter dated September 1 that management will “implement the terms of our pending final offer,” claiming that the union “has no intention of changing its position” in negotiations with the company. NFS is seeking numerous give-backs, including stripping health care benefits previously promised to retirees and ending the long-established pension plan for workers.

Striking members of USW Local 677 say it is management that has been inflexible in negotiations, and the union will file Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board against NFS to prove it. Union workers say NFS managers and owners are reaping the benefits of taxpayer dollars through governmental support and are now attempting to use those tax dollars to crush the workers’ union and collective bargaining rights.

“It’s unbelievable that our federal government, which is making NFS owners and managers wealthy with our tax money, would allow this company to engage in union-busting and jeopardize the nation’s supply of nuclear fuel so important