The Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 AFL-CIO recently charged that Covanta Energy Corporation, a firm which owns or operates more than 50 energy-from-waste plants across the United States, has potentially violated labor laws through materials printed in its long standing employee handbook, which restricts and/or coerces employees from exercising their rights in the workplace.

UWUA Local 369 represents 130 workers at the Covanta-owned SEMASS plant in West Wareham/Rochester, MA, but the complaint has national, far-reaching implications. “This is a sweeping violation of labor laws,” said Gary Sullivan, President of Local 369, who added, “This unfair labor practice is not directed specifically at SEMASS but at the corporation at large.”

Covanta Holding Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange listed company, owns and operates energy-from-waste facilities worldwide. The company converts 15 million tons of waste into more than 8 million megawatt hours of electricity each year and create 10 billion pounds of steam that are sold to a variety of industries.

At issue are a series of violations which includes total restrictions on the ability of employees to solicit or distribute political information, and extreme limitations on the right to fraternize at social gatherings outside of work.

Covanta’s plants are located in Virginia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Minnesota, Alabama, Virginia, Mississippi, Florida, Oregon, Oklahoma, California, and Maryland. Locally, Covanta owns and operates SEMASS; and elsewhere in MA, power plants in Haverhill, Pittsfield and Springfield, and Transfer Stations in Braintree and Holliston.

Sullivan said, “For more than a half century, American labor law has ensured to workers basic rights in the areas of soliciting and distributing materials. In crafting and disseminating the employee handbook in the manner it has, Covanta makes clear that it has neither knowledge of nor respect for that body of law.”

Earlier this year, UWUA Local 369 organized workers at the SEMASS plant, which has been in operation since 1988. The unionized members of SEMASS include equipment operators, and plant and maintenance workers.

 Originally owned by Energy Answers, SEMASS was sold to American Ref-Fuel in June 1996 and then to Covanta Energy.