Workers moving the industry forward

The Power Workers' Union represents workers at Ontario Hydro's nuclear stations and AECL operators at Chalk River. Although labour relations are far from perfect, the union does its best to protect the industry. Avoiding confrontation as much as possible, this union is happy to be regarded as a partner in the business. The union is impressed by the consultants' report on Ontario Hydro's nuclear operations. Whatever the future may bring, the present is not really pleasant for nuclear workers generally, in that the work itself is very demanding technically, and must be performed with great diligence because the responsibility for safety is enormous. Considering the actual safety record, some caricatures or ''cheap shots'' from antinuclear politicians and special interest groups seem quite offensive. As a partner in public relations, the union has produced draft fact sheets on topics such as: transporting radioactive material; the burning of plutonium from dismantled weaponry; deep geological storage of nuclear waste; the sale of Candu reactors to China. The author closes with some advice on how to improve industrial relations, based on the union's experience