Friday, November 9, 2012

More layoffs announced at Anniston weapons incinerator

The company that operated Anniston’s chemical weapons incinerator has 50 fewer workers today as part of continuing efforts to close down the facility.

According to a Wednesday press release from Westinghouse Anniston, the contractor responsible for shutting down the facility, the employee drawdown today will affect 50 workers at the Anniston Chemical Agent Disposal Facility. The facility reached another closure milestone and so no longer needs the labor.

Workers there destroyed the last of Anniston’s chemical weapons stockpile in September 2011 and has been undergoing closure efforts ever since.

The release states that the layoffs are expected to be a permanent reduction in the facility’s workforce. Not including the latest round of layoffs, Westinghouse has downsized its workforce by approximately 100 positions over the last year through attrition, transfers of employees to other sites and voluntary departures. After the layoffs, there will still be 650 people working at the incinerator for Westinghouse and its subcontractors along with 20 government employees.

Among the workers who no longer have jobs at the facility: four paramedics, three munitions handlers, three mechanical technicians and an environmental engineer.

Guy Campbell, system contractor project manager for Westinghouse, said the closure program reached the major milestone of disassembling equipment in areas were chemical weapons were destroyed.

“We have a schedule with intermittent milestones and this is the next milestone we’re getting ready to achieve,” Campbell said.

Currently, Westinghouse projects the facility will be completely closed in the second quarter of 2015, which is earlier than original projections, Campbell said.

No comments: