Opinion ID: 782343
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Palo Verde

Text: 7 Fluor Daniel was hired by the Arizona Public Service Company (APS) to provide service and maintenance at Palo Verde, the largest nuclear power facility in the United States, for a total of three years beginning in the summer of 1994. Fluor Daniel was responsible for the maintenance of the plant generally, and for maintenance and refueling during scheduled outages when the plant was shut down. Before Fluor Daniel won the bid, the plant had been constructed, serviced and maintained by Bechtel Corporation (Bechtel), one of the world's largest general contractors and a unionized employer. In performing its contract at Palo Verde, Bechtel previously had contracted with craftsmen from several local unions, including the Boilermakers Local 627, Millwright Local 1914, and Ironworkers Local 75. 8 In its bid proposal for the Palo Verde project, Fluor Daniel stated that it had determined that an open shop labor posture can best meet our goals. The proposal also emphasized that Fluor Daniel had a database of its former employees that included many with nuclear experience, and that the Company had the expertise to transition Palo Verde from a closed shop facility, i.e., one where all employees are union members, to an open shop facility. 9 Staffing at Palo Verde began in June 1994, and by February 1996 Fluor Daniel had hired 962 craft employees. Periodically, APS would prepare requisitions called Contract Labor Requests (Requests) for Fluor Daniel, which indicated the number and type of craft employees that were needed at any particular time. Based on the Requests, Fluor Daniel was authorized to hire a certain number of employees for its base crew and for meeting its staffing needs during outages. Fluor Daniel relied heavily on telephone and mailgram recruiting of former employees, including many who lived outside of Arizona. The Company also posted available positions at the jobsite and allowed the general public to submit applications on a walk-in basis. Out of the 200 former Bechtel employees who previously had worked at the site, received training from the APS, and obtained security clearance, ninety-one were hired by Fluor Daniel. 10 Area trade unions decided to organize and apply for jobs at the site as voluntary union organizers (VUOs). Gary Evenson, a paid organizer from a local union of boilermakers, organized the effort at Palo Verde with former Bechtel employees. The VUOs agreed to accept employment if offered, to stay until laid off, to do a good job ... to discuss the benefits of union representation with other employees [on the site] and to record notes of actions that appeared to interfere with protected rights. They were instructed to wear conspicuous union insignia and write voluntary union organizer on their applications. Fifty-two former Bechtel employees agreed to serve as VUOs and submitted applications at the jobsite between June 16 and June 23, 1994. None of these fifty-two former Bechtel employees were hired, though monthly reports in 1995 indicated Fluor Daniel had trouble meeting staffing needs for the project. On June 27, 1994, twenty-six former Bechtel employees serving as VUOs attempted to submit applications and were refused.