06.20.06

Cantwell Commends DOE Decision to Preserve Hanford Contractors’ Retirement Security, Health Benefits

DOE suspends plan to gut benefits for one year, will seek input from Congress; Cantwell calls on agency to abandon proposal permanently

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) applauded the Department of Energy (DOE) for its decision to suspend for one year a proposal that would exclude new contract workers who work on DOE sites from participation in the Department’s guaranteed defined-benefit pension plan, but hopes they suspend their efforts for more than just one year. The proposal, opposed vocally by Cantwell, would adversely affect many of the 40,000 workers with Hanford-related jobs as well as thousands of other workers across the country.

“This announcement comes as welcome news to the many men and women working to clean up America’s nuclear legacy, but we still need a more concrete commitment from DOE to provide health and retirement security to our state’s thousands of Hanford workers,” said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy Committee. “We need to put an end to attempts to strip away benefit plans or create a volatile, two-tiered pension system. Cost cutting shouldn’t compromise the basic health care and retirement security of our state’s many dedicated Hanford workers.”

On May 5, in response to news of the planned benefit cuts, Senators Cantwell, Harry Reid (D-NV), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Patty Murray (D-WA), Max Baucus (D-MT), and Tom Harkin (D-IA) sent a letter to President Bush urging him to reject the proposed policy. On May 9, in a separate letter to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Cantwell reiterated her opposition to the plan and called on DOE to continue providing secure pensions and health benefits to all contract workers. In a letter sent Monday to Senate leaders, Bodman announced DOE’s decision to suspend the proposed policy for one year and consult with stakeholders, including members of Congress, to seek their input on the issue.

In May, Cantwell joined a coalition of her Senate colleagues in introducing legislation to ensure fair and equal pension and medical benefits for contract workers at Department of Energy sites like Hanford. The “Department of Energy Contractor Employee Equitable Treatment Act” directs the Bush Administration to permanently abandon its proposal to exclude new contract workers from DOE’s defined-benefit pension plan.

Under the proposed policy announced earlier this spring, current Hanford contract workers could continue participating in the existing pension and health care program, but all new contract employees would be ineligible and would have to enroll in their respective employers’ packages. As a result, the proposal would create a two-tiered system in which some contractors received better benefits than others.

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