After receiving news last week that the United Steelworkers Local 7-669 workers would return to the Metropolis uranium conversion facility and that production would resume July 1, the company has moved the return date at least two weeks, according to John Paul Smith, USW Local 7-669 spokesman.

"The company has misled its employees, and the public once again. We aren't looking to tell Honeywell how to run their plant, but we do feel like we deserve honesty in a situation where people's livelihood is involved," said USW Local 7-669 President Stephen Lech.

According to USW Local 7-669, the workers who have been laid off since the middle of May have been without health insurance since the first of June.

In a written statement Friday, Honeywell Communications Spokesman John McCarthy said Honeywell's Metropolis facility has extended the plant's annual production shutdown from the previously scheduled completion date of July 1.

"We are doing so to evaluate additional work that may be needed in response to comprehensive inspections that the NRC conducted at all U.S. nuclear facilities. In the weeks ahead, we intend to continue our reviews and consultations with the NRC," said McCarthy.

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