LATEST UNION NEWS
Updated on August 24th, 2010

Online Meetings
The next Monthly Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 16th, 2010.  There will be three online meetings the third Thursday of every month at 8am, 1pm, and 6pm.  All times are central.

Zion Decommissioning
Bartlett is rumored to have about five technicians working on setting up the count room and revising procedures. Energy Solutions continues to post management positions on their website for the decommissioning at Zion. We have also posted them on the NPUA Job Opportunity page along with other Radiation Protection positions.

The federal per diem rate for Clark county in Illinois is seasonal but well over $200/day. That should tell you something. It's not cheap to live near the Chicago metro. Remember that the laborers will be earning over $35/hour and they have a contract to work at Zion. It appears that the decommissioning will have a direct impact on the fall outages and those of the spring of 2011 and beyond. We will keep you posted on any updates.

Industry News
The Babcock & Wilcox Company, through its subsidiary Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Group, Inc., announced that the Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC team has been awarded the decontamination and decommissioning contract at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Ohio. The contract has an estimated value of approximately $2.1 billion over a 10-year period, which includes an initial five-year period in addition to a potential five-year extension based on performance and government requirements. This project will also need additional RCT supplemental staffing through one of the contract companies which will have a direct impact on the 2011 spring outages.

NPUA Apprenticeship
We have applied for a grant from the Department of Labor to help fund the Apprenticeship program. Development of the software for the online lesson plans is not free. We are progressing forward as funding is available. We hope to be launching the Online Training page soon. In addition to the Apprenticeship program, we will offer the OSHA 40 Hour Hazwoper certification, the OSHA 8 Hour refresher, and additional OSHA and GET lesson plans as a FREE benefit to our membership.

"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein

NPUA News
The election results are in from Crystal River. There were 12 Yes votes and 2 No votes. Thanks to all of those that stood up and voted. Thanks goes out to those who helped organize and handed out the Authorization Cards. Thank You

The National petition with DZ Atlantic has been filed with the NLRB. Hearings to define the election process are scheduled for November 2nd, 2010. The NLRB Hearing in Atlanta objecting to the actions by Bartlett management will be on Thursday, August 26th. We continue to work on your behalf. 

The NPUA fully electronic online Authorization Card is almost ready for the national petition organizing effort with Bartlett. We will send out an update once it has been uploaded and tested. 

Utility News
PG&E has decided that the fall outage at Diablo Canyon will be the last using the direct hiring model. It is unknown at this time on the reason. We will find out after the staffing begins in September. Could be that the new middle management in the Radiation Protection department wanted to make a change. That opens the door for a company to come in and bid to supply supplemental staffing.

Best Regards,
NPUA Leadership