NEWS RELEASE PRESS RELEASE
OIL, CHEMICAL & ATOMIC WORKERS INT'L UNION, AFL-CIO
 
For Immediate Release: August 6, 1998   
Contact: Roger Simmons, OCAW/WIPP 
         Organizing Committee Co-chair, (505)885-0032.
         Wayne Horman, OCAW District 2 Organizer,
         (505)885-8414.

     LAKEWOOD, COLO.-- A majority of the 139 hourly
employees of the Westinghouse Waste Isolation Division
voted for the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Union (OCAW)
at the Carlsbad, NM, Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP)
site. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election
occurred July 23 and 24, and Region 28 of the NLRB in
Phoenix, Ariz., certified the results on Aug. 3.
 
     "Despite the Department of Energy's commitment to
maintain neutrality, the contractor - Westinghouse Waste
Isolation Division -- hired a 'union-avoidance'
consultant to confuse, divide and generally disorganize
the workers," said OCAW District 2 organizer Wayne
Horman. "Nevertheless, by staying focused on the main
goal of winning representation in order to ultimately get
a contract, the union was able to overcome these
anti-union tactics."
 
     WIPP hourly employees contacted OCAW when some of
them learned of the accomplishments of the 5,500-member
OCAW Atomic Council in setting labor standards in the
atomic industry. Earlier this summer, they formed a union
organizing committee with the help of OCAW. 
 
     Workers were concerned about the security of their
jobs because the Waste Isolation Division of Westinghouse
was recently bought by the consortium of Morris Knudson
and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL). The sale is projected
to be final at year's end.
 
     "Our employer was being sold, and when we asked what
was to happen to our jobs, incomes and benefits, we were
given no guarantee that they would continue in their
present form," said organizing committee chair Roger
Simmons. "We decided to ask OCAW to help us form a local
union and assist in negotiating a labor agreement that
will provide contractual guarantees of job, income and
benefit security, as well as fairness and equity on the
job, regardless of who our employer is. After all, we
knew that everyone else who did business at WIPP had a
contract and we should have one too."
 
     "We look forward to cooperating with our employers
through collective bargaining and expeditiously coming to
agreement on our contract," Simmons said. 
 
     The WIPP facility is a transuranic waste repository
26 miles southeast of Carlsbad, NM, and is operated by
Department of Energy contractors.