Uranium enrichment began in the United States as part of the World War II Manhattan Project to produce nuclear weapons. The first uranium enrichment operations were set up at what is now the Oak Ridge Nat’l. Laboratory (Tennessee) in 1942. In the 1950’s the U.S. government set up two additional enrichment plants, in Paducah in 1952 and in Piketon, Ohio.
The major technology used at Oak Ridge for the weapons program was gaseous diffusion. The Paducah and Piketon plants also were gaseous diffusion plants. USW and its predecessor unions have represented workers at all three sites from early on.
Members of the USW’s Atomic Energy Workers Council met with U.S. Department of Energy officials at the group’s semi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C., to discuss their sites’ working conditions and offered suggestions for improvement.
Members attending the semi-annual meeting of the USW Atomic Energy Workers Council elected council officers for a three-year term.
Joe Villines had never dealt with the atomic industry before getting assigned to Local 8-550 at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. He soon discovered it was a “whole different ballgame” from being a representative in the private sector.
Read how Charlene Clarke from local 13173 in Ontario, Canada got active in her local of almost 200 members.
The Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP) is a program sponsored by the Dept. of Energy to detect and address health problems of DOE workers.
As of November 2012 Local unions at most USW nuclear sites in the United States are active in USW’s Atomic Energy Workers’ Council (AEWC). Several others are not involved currently.
Uranium enrichment began over 70 years ago in the United States and for most of those years the United Steelworkers and its predecessor unions have represented workers at American sites.
