SRS layoff figure omits 100s

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AIKEN - Later this month, the private company that runs Savannah River Site will lay off 300 people, but that figure tells only part of the downsizing tale that's unfolding at the federal nuclear reservation.

Westinghouse Savannah River Co., which runs the site for the Department of Energy, didn't include about 300 construction workers who were laid off from June 2003 through February.

It also didn't include about 200 janitorial and maintenance employees whose jobs were cut in January.

Neither of the unincorporated groups is considered "permanent" by Westinghouse, and therefore, they weren't counted, officials said. But to Fred Humes and others, no unemployed person from SRS is any different from another.

"Those jobs represent disposable income for the people in the community," said Mr. Humes, the executive director of the Economic Development Partnership for Aiken and Edgefield counties.

"Whether they're engineers or craftsmen, those are people who spend money in the community and will be looking for jobs," added Mr. Humes, who works to bring new business to the community, including new job-creating missions to SRS.

The electricians, pipe fitters and welders who've been let go but aren't included in Westinghouse's layoff figure weren't given much notice, said union managers who represent them.

"They figure we're temporary employees, but we've got some who got laid off who've worked there 20, 30 years," said Tom Jenkins, the business manager for the Local 283 Carpenters and Millwrights Union in Augusta.

His union has 54 employees at the site, having lost 39 since October.

Since January, Local Laborers Union 1137 has lost 97 of its 220 workers, said Warren Hills Sr., business manager for the union.

"They laid laborers off with 29 years' experience at the site," he said.

Linda Stephens' duties ranged from monitoring workers in radioactive areas to digging trenches during her 16 years at SRS. She said her work there kept her family afloat.

She was laid off Feb. 23.

"They should have put a dull knife in my heart and twisted it," Ms. Stephens said. "That's just how it felt."

Westinghouse said the number of construction workers at the site continually fluctuates and isn't a sure indicator of the site's future. The figure steadily rose from 682 in 1999 to 1,054 in 2003, company spokesman Dean Campbell said.

"This is part of the ebb and flow of the work we do," he said. "If you consider this layoff, we've been doing layoffs for a long, long time."

The current cutbacks, though, come as the site faces uncertainty with future missions. Even if the site lands the new programs it wants, Westinghouse President Bob Pedde said this week, its work force will drop from about 13,000 to 9,000.

Union representatives complain that the current round of layoffs doesn't make sense. Several reps said Westinghouse should be laying off nonconstruction workers so crafts workers can complete projects. But they aren't going for the big personnel cuts because of election-year politics.

"They're shutting down projects daily because they don't have the money to do them," said Edgar West, business manager for the Local 79 Ironworkers Union. "The reason they don't have the money to do them is because (DOE) won't allow them to lay off the people they need to."

He said environmental cleanup work is going unfinished, even though part of Westinghouse's contract with DOE rewards the company the faster it finishes such work.

The company said it was meeting its commitment to regulators and its contractual obligations to DOE regarding environmental cleanup activities.

Westinghouse is apparently in a pinch, however, based on other cuts, including the layoffs of about 200 maintenance workers.

In their absence, Westinghouse employees, some with six-digit salaries, are responsible for vacuuming their offices and taking out their own trash.

"Just those small tasks, while they're inconvenient, can save up to $750,000 in a six-month period," Mr. Campbell said. "We've got to continue to be stewards of taxpayer money."

Reach Josh Gelinas at (803)279-6895 or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Sunday, March 14, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle