OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Oct. 12, 2004 — Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the Department of Energy's largest science construction project, recently received two awards from the Tennessee Labor Management Conference -- the Award of Excellence in labor-management relations and the Horizon Award for community service.
The Award of Excellence, which the SNS shares with lead construction contractor Knight/Jacobs Joint Venture and its subcontractors and with the Knoxville Building and Construction Trades Council, recognizes the project's achievements in safety, training, diversity and community service. The Horizon Award recognizes the SNS labor-management team's community service in renovating CALM House, a hospitality house adjacent to a local hospital.
"The unions and contractors working with ORNL at the SNS site have forged a very strong and productive labor-management relationship," said SNS Director Thom Mason. "This cooperative atmosphere is a leading reason why the project is on track to completion on time, safely, on budget and is regarded as an important asset to the community."
"The SNS partnership has demonstrated a leadership role by contributing to a superior record of safety, advanced training opportunities for skilled craft workers and apprentices, an excellent record of recruiting and hiring minorities and women, and making valuable contributions to the Oak Ridge community," said Dick Davis of Knight/Jacobs.
In the Award of Excellence, the state labor relations group cited the SNS project's accomplishments in four areas: safety, advanced training, work-force diversity and community involvement in partnership with Knight-Jacobs and the Knoxville Building and Construction Trades Council (KBCTC), which comprises 17 local unions.
"Science on the scale of an SNS project's magnitude was enough motivation for us all -- the government entities, the citizens, the contracting community and the construction labor unions -- to become a cohesion of equals," said KBCTC President Ray Whitehead.
Among the SNS team's accomplishments cited by the conference are a safety record of no lost-time injuries during the course of the project, training programs that have enabled workers to stay on the cutting edge of their craft, employment outreach efforts that have resulted in attained goals in minority hiring, and community service on the CALM House project.
The SNS team's work on CALM House was also recognized with the Horizon Award, which it shared with a Memphis firm, Diesel Recon. CALM stands for the Cooperative Agreement of Labor and Management, an initiative of DOE contractors and the 17 unions of the KBCTC. The partnership remodeled a World War II-era apartment building that will be used to house cancer patients and their families while the patients receive long-term treatment at the Methodist Medical Center of Oak Ridge.
When completed in 2006, SNS will become the world's leading research facility for study of the structure and dynamics of materials using neutrons. It will operate as a user facility that will enable researchers from the United States and abroad to study the science of materials that forms the basis for new technologies in energy, telecommunications, manufacturing, transportation, information technology, biotechnology and health.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram laboratory managed for the Department of Energy by UT-Battelle.
Find out more about the Spallation Neutron Source at https://neutrons.ornl.gov