ML041760495

Letter to Commissioner Mcgaffigan from Lt. Todd Lynch, Wackenhut, in Reply to: New York Times Article.

ML041760495
Person / Time
Site:	Monticello
Issue date:	10/23/2002
From:	Lynch T Wackenhut Corp
To:	Mcgaffigan E NRC/OCM
References
FOIA/PA-2004-0180
Download: ML041760495 (6)

Text

Monticello Nuclear Generating Facility 2807 West County Road 75 Monticello, MN 55362 October 23,2002 In reply to: New York Times article Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr.

One White Flint North 11555 Rockville Pike Rockville, MD 20852-2738

Dear Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr.,

This letter is being sent in response to the October 16, 2002 article published in the New York Times.

My concern with this article is that I am afraid you are only hearing one side of the argument about 12-hour shifts and excessive overtime. The majority of the supervisors and Officers at the Monticello Facility are in favor of the 12-hour shifts, and would like to remain on them as we have for the last eight years. When a plant is fully staffed, this schedule offers a large amount of time off every month.,

As you know, there has been significant changes in the Nuclear Security Industry since 9/11/01, and the security teams nation wide have had to step up to the plate and do whatever is necessary to protect our country and our industry. I feel that we, as a whole, have done an admirable job in this duty. There has been a great amount of sacrifice offered up by our Officers and their families, and to punish therm'by taking away the schedule that they have chosen, because of what I believe to be a minority of officers at other plants, would only add insult to injury.

The real question here is why all the overtime? Well, we all know that since 9/11/01 we have been required by the NRC to substantially increase the amount of Security Officers at all plants nation wide.

What does that entail? First, you need to run ads to get applicants. This usually takes three to four weeks. Second, you need to go through the interview process, which can take up to three weeks. Third,.

you must do reference checks, so add another one to two weeks to the total. Fourth, you must allow the new hire two weeks to give notice with their current employer. Finally, you have six weeks of training.

At this point, if all goes well and there is no hold up on the background checks, which we run into frequently, you are ready to have the new hires start on shift. As you can see, we cannot simply manufacture officers Overnight. With the exception of approximately two months, our facility has had classes in training since 9/11/01. So, then the question is, why so much overtime if we have all these new Officers? That is easy to answer, changes, changes, and more changes from the NRC. Please don't misunderstand me, I know these changes are warranted, but please keep in mind that with each threat level'increase, we need to have additional Officers fill the extra positions that are mandated by the NRC. You may be thinking, why not have larger classes? Simply put, the larger the class, the lower the quality of the training. Similar to the problems our nations schools have been facing in regards to class size.

Will 8-hour shifts, reduce overtime and improve employee morale? In my opinion, no. If you switch from a 12-hour schedule to an 8-hour you will have to hire still more Officers, and you will have to assign even more overtime to the existing Officers while the new class would be in training. Now, on to.the point of morale. Once we are back to being fully staffed, and hopefully the mandated changes slow down. Our 12-hour schedule offers us a built in seven day break every month. Also, under our normal schedule we never work more than 4 days in a row. I believe that the Palisades plant changed over to 12-hour shifts around 9/11 /01, and were never really able to see the benefits of this schedule.

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0 Page 2 October 27, 2002 Once they are up to full staffing levels I am sure they will like it as well as the Officers here at Monticello do. Another point you should look at with the officers that have filed these complaints is how many of the extra shifts they say they worked were assigned to them, versus the Officer volunteering to cover the spot. It has been my experience that officers will volunteer for a number of overtime spots on their own and then complain about the amount of overtime they are working. I think we have all gone through this at one time or another, basically biting off a little fore than you can chew.

Please allow me to touch on one other topic that was mentioned in this article. It was stated a couple of times in a negative marner that some Officers were sent for psychological exams because they were stressed out and fatigued. I am sure that people outside of our industry thought this was a bit bizarre and couldn't imagine this happening in their work place. To that I say, our industry is far from the normal work place! We do not work with hammers or computers like the average working person does. Our tools are assault rifles and handguns. There is a lot of stress that goes with knowing you are a likely target of a terrorist. Our Officers take these psychological tests prior to being hired as well as after there is an incident that could cause them to lose their edge and not be mentally ready to defend their plant with their life.

In closing, I would like to thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. I understand that you are only trying to do what's right, but I am only asking that you look at all the facts before making a judgment and mandating that all plants go to an 8-hour schedule.

Respectfully, Lt. Todd W. Lynch Security Supervisor Wackenhut Security Corporation Enclosures (4) cc: NMC Security Director Mark Findlay NRC Resident Inspector Steve Burton

The following officers attest that they are in favor of staying on 12-hour work schedules.

It is understood that these signatures are going to be.

forwarded to NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr.

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The following officers attest that they are in favor of staying on 12-hour work schedules.

It is understood that these signatures are going to be forwarded to NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr.

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The following officers attest that they are in favor of staying on 12-hour work schedules.

It is understood that these signatures are going to be forwarded to NRC Commissioner Edward McGaffigan Jr.

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