Hanford Patrol K-9 officers worry over their dogs kenneled during labor negotiations

Dave Donovan misses Freda. She’s a 3-year-old black lab — 45 pounds of bounce and a hunter’s nose for explosives.

Freda can sniff and alert on up to 18 different substances. That includes things like gunpowder, C-4 and dynamite.

At the Hanford nuclear cleanup site, several specially-trained explosive sniffing dogs, like Freda, have been taken away from their handlers. The dogs are being kenneled. 

“Freda, she’s a young dog, a very active, very hyper dog that needs a lot of attention,” said Donovan, who is a K-9 officer at Hanford. “She doesn’t do well in kennels. When I dropped her off, it was a 4-by-4 cage that they put her in, kind of a dark corner of the kennel. So it was, it was tough. It was hard.”

This is the latest turn from a labor dispute lockout at the 586-square-mile site. At the gargantuan site, union Hanford Patrol officers are locked out. They’re negotiating with their site contractor, Hanford Mission Integration Solutions, known locally as HMIS.

Donovan said his partner, the black lab Freda, has been housed in that darkish corner at a kennel in the Tri-Cities since just before Thanksgiving. 

Usually, Freda resides with Donovan and his wife. He said it’s stressful to be separated during this labor dispute. Donovan added that he would have looked after Freda for free. He said when she comes back home there will be readjustment, and specialized training to brush up on. 

“It bothers me that I have to do that, I mean have to reacquaint,” Donovan said. “I don’t know how to explain it. It is emotional, but I deal with it.” 

The members of Hanford Guards Union Local 21 are asking HMIS for more pay, medical autonomy and “arbitration fairness.” A HMIS spokesperson said the dogs are being cared for in a professional kennel facility.

“This facility has been vetted by the Hanford Patrol K-9 trainer, a former Hanford Guards Union K-9 handler, who is responsible for making sure these dogs are safe and cared for,” said Reneé Brooks, who is with HMIS. “The K-9s are periodically rotated on duty at the Hanford Site.”

Honey is another Hanford Patrol dog who has been kenneled away from her handler. Hanford Patrol workers and their federal contractor are in a labor dispute at the nuclear cleanup site in southeast Washington. (Courtesy of Briana Deline)

Donovan said each dog is specially trained. But then, it’s specially trained and bonded to its handler. The two work as a team, so someone else working the dog wouldn’t get the same results. Donovan said it can take up to a month to get acclimated to each other. 

Chris Hall, the president of Hanford Guards Union Local 21, said the dogs aren’t well cared for. He said the union dog handlers say the dogs are often covered with feces when they return to their handlers after being kenneled. And, Hall added, the dogs’ behavior changes when they are kenneled.   

The meeting

Thursday at the union hall in downtown Richland, large men stood like lined up doors in a conference room too small to hold them all. They spilled into the hallway. The group was waiting for a union meeting to begin, and to hear the latest offer from the Hanford contractor they’re bargaining with. 

Beyond the dogs, these Hanford Patrol workers are worried about their health care benefits that will run out on Sunday. 

“Guys are filing for unemployment,” Hall said. “Then you have all the things that go along with the holidays. You have food and presents and all the expectations … now put not having a job or medical insurance on top of all that.”

And union members are worried about the site’s safety. They say temporary workers can’t know the site as well as they do. The site contractor will be strapped to cover 24 hours every day, Hall said. 

“If you do a certain job, whatever your skill set is, let’s say carpentry, you build houses every day,” Hall said. “You’re definitely not going to go to a junior high shop class and say, ‘I’m recruiting people to work on the side to work on a house, and it’s going to get signed off on by somebody doing code inspection.’ And say, ‘Yep this is good.’ It’s the same type of comparison, really, when it comes down to it. The people that do the job every single day … they’re the ones that are not going to let the safety and security of people on the site and the surrounding area slip.” 

The union reps and contractor met again this week, but Hall was skeptical that the union would accept the new proposal. Hall said that proposal didn’t give them what they’re asking for, but a proposed pay raise of half of one percent. 

“It hasn’t gotten close to what we want,” he said. “We are talking, but they did this as a tactic to make people vote for their contract. Financial pressure.” 

For its part, HMIS said Hanford is being patrolled by exempt Department of Energy certified police officers and security officers. Those workers receive certification approved through the DOE National Training Center. 

“Approximately two-thirds of Hanford Patrol are bargaining unit Security Police Officers (SPOs) who are unable to report to work until a new agreement is reached with the Hanford Guards Union,” Brooks said. “During this period, additional support for SPO posts is provided by former SPOs who now work in security and emergency response positions at the Hanford Site, as well as certified exempt SPOs from other DOE sites. All personnel receive Hanford Site-specific training before they are assigned a post.”