PIKETON, Ohio - Officials of the United States Enrichment Corporation’s Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Plant and PACE Local 5-689 presented highlights of their improved labor-management relationship to the Tenth National Labor-Management Conference in Chicago in late April.

Presenting at this largest-ever labor relations event in the United States were USEC’s Portsmouth Plant General Manager Morris Brown and Employee Relations Manager Gary Hairston. PACE Local 5-689 presenters were President Daniel Minter and Division Committeeman Larry Smith.

The Portsmouth plant’s enhanced labor relationship, described in the presentation, has helped lead to important plant accomplishments.

• In December 1999, the membership of PACE Local 5-689 voted to extend the current labor contract for an additional four years.
  
  
• In 1999, USEC and PACE Local 5-689 were recognized for improvements in labor relations by both the 1999 Ohio Buckeye Labor-Management Conference and the Ross County Labor/Management Committee.
  
  
• In February, the Portsmouth plant celebrated a new safety record by working a total of 1,507,959 hours or 133 days without experiencing a Lost Work Day Case – Days Away from Work recordable injury. This is an all-time record for the plant since it began following U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recordkeeping guidelines in 1989.
  
  
• Grievance backlog and the number of new grievances have been greatly reduced.
  
  
• There is more use of positive reinforcement methods such as awards and recognition.
  
  
• Employees feel free to identify problems, express concerns and submit suggestions.
  
  
• Human performance errors have decreased by 90 percent.
  
  
• Regulatory performance is greatly improved.
  
  
• Equipment availability is increased.
  
  

The OSHA Area Director has invited the Portsmouth plant to submit an application for VPP (Voluntary Protection Program) status, a safety working relationship that has been achieved by only a very small percentage of industries regulated by OSHA’s Region V office and nationwide.

Presently the Portsmouth plant is operating at its highest production efficiency ever and with the most production equipment in service since 1995. Further, these high production levels are being accomplished with reduced costs.

"We are all proud of the labor-management relationship we have at Portsmouth and are continually working to make it even stronger," said Morris Brown, Portsmouth Plant General Manager. "The Portsmouth workforce is committed to long-term plant viability and future enrichment technologies," said Dan Minter, President, PACE Local 3-689.

The United States Enrichment Corporation is a subsidiary of USEC Inc., the world’s leading supplier of enriched uranium fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. A global energy company, USEC has its headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, and operates production plants in Kentucky and Ohio.

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