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From: Public Affairs Office
Sent: Friday, December 17, 2010 12:18 PM
To: E-line
Subject: MESSAGE ABOUT FEDERAL PAY FREEZE
E-line: Message about federal pay freeze
Last month, President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for all civilian federal workers as part of the broad sacrifice required to bring the national deficit under control. Today, Secretary Chu announced a similar freeze on salary and bonus pool increases for site and facility management contractors who run day-to-day activities at DOE sites and facilities, including the national laboratories. The details of implementation are not yet available. I know this is difficult news to receive, particularly at this time of year. I will keep you informed as we learn more.
-George Miller, Director
50 comments:
Are the bonuses provided by LANS/LLNS to upper management affected by the pay freeze? That would be horrendous.
It's like Hazel O'Leary again. But that pay freeze was for 1 year.
I chose TCP2 so at least the small COLA applied to my inactive account will still be there.
Last year I received the worst pay raise in my 36 year career. Looks like it will be worse this year.
I especially love the " in the spirit of shared sacrifice...". I am really wondering with whom I am sacrificing; certainly not the rich, who just got a tax cut extension.
And are they going to continue these silly performance exercises?
"You had a really good year, very successful, blablbla. As a reward you are getting a whopping 0% increase and will pay more for health care and retirement. Continue the good work."
well, glad I was surfing around the internet today and stopped by. I was part of the lab affected by the power outage on Friday and missed this on the lab web site. Guess there is still a few things to discuss on this blog. I'm feeling less like staying around. I'm in TCP1 and if my salary is frozen for the next two years, how much is it worth staying around for?
The COLA (2% per year) applies to TCP1 too once you retire from LLNS, so retiring early may not be such a bad idea.
Yep Stevie Chu is as valuable a Hazel O"leary.
It reinforces my suspicion that Nobel prizes have become liberal propaganda.
He has been a eunuch as Energy leader.
Recess.
A.holes in Washington waste our tax money on bailouts to the rich, stupid wars, feel good social programs, etc. Then have the nerve to tell us WE need to sacrifice more to pay for their mess!
They treat OUR MONEY like it's their personal bank account. Obama needs us to sacrifice so that he can pay for his 20th vacation. This time in Hawaii, "where he was born" - don't cha know...
Miller and Chu are PERFECT examples of wasting tax payer dollars. George needs to keep his big mouth shut, and Chu needs to stay out of politics and management, and just go paint his roof or something.
So how does this save any money unless they cut the Lab's budget. DOE/NNSA does not directly pay the salaries of the contractor employees, salaries come out of the overall site budget and program accounts - not a separate line in the federal budget. Is it not correct that DOE/NNSA does not send extra money to the M&O company to pay for raises - they just authorize the contractor to use existing budget for raises. So what happens at the end of the FY in September to the left over money in the Lab's budget that was planned on being used for raises?
December 19, 2010 11:03 AMI
Couldn't agree more. You are completely correct. Raises are authorized by the DOE and are a percentage of the operating budget. If there is no commensurate cut in the operating budget (and there won't be), we can (once again) bend over and assume the position."Best and brightest" applies to George and the gang with the rest of us filling the role of ignorant, befuddled, peon.
I suspect the number of those electing to retire will blossom. Just might explain the heretofore unexplained hiring binge. George and the gang knew this was coming.Very clever management ploy.
Chu's call for "shared sacrifice" would ring truer if he didn't increase his agency's budget by 7.3% this year.
"Shared sacrifice" also doesn't describe the adminstration's comprimise between the Democrats and Republicans, which somehow amounted to cutting taxes and increasing spending more than either of them proposed.
I think two words that really describe the situation is "buying votes".
Yes the Lab is catching up with most private and state employees (even Police are taking cuts).
What I believe private industry leans toward is if they cannot give raises they may give some other kind of perk (working from home, bonus, etc...).
I think the Lab should go in this direction in lieu of not being able to have raises.
Look I'm certainly not a fan of Obama but if you didn't see this coming....This is modern life.
Don't worry, be happy......you have a job!
From the DOE news release: Chu added: "Our national labs, the country's crown jewels for leading research and development, will continue to attract and retain the nation's top scientists, and pursue some of the most important discoveries that will lead us into the 21st century."
How retarded could a Nobel Prize winner be?
Just saying it doesn't mean it's going to happen if there are better placed to go.
Suffocating, primitive compliance-based bureaucracy. Incredibly expensive operating contracts. Ouija board polygraphs. 35+% increases in medical insurance premiums. Super-richly paid employment-contract managers with huge bonuses. Savage, politically motivated hatchet job investigations any time something goes wrong with the primitive compliance-based regulations.
And now a two-year pay freeze.
Sure, we'll keep attracting the best and brightest. Who in their right mind would ever want to work anywhere else?
Perhaps Sec. Chu should postpone tours of the DOE complex until the natives become a bit less restless.
I'm sure that George at LLNL and Mike at LANL put up a valiant fight for their people.
I am also quite sure of the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
Actually blame the tea party wing of the republican party - they want to cut taxes and the federal deficit. If you really want to do both, somewhere in government pain is going to be felt. The executive branch (Obama) does not set the budget, congress does. Obama gets the blame in the media for spending too much, but the executive branch can only spend what Congress allows - and if you don't spend what congress has set forth to spend in appropriations, that's legal too.
So the executive branch has frozen the salaries that it controls, do you think the legislative branch will do the same for all members of Congress and their staffs?
“Actually blame the tea party wing of the Republican Party - they want to cut taxes and the federal deficit.”
The gall of those people! Just because, Governmant accountants, clerks, Cafeteria staff, Custodians, et al make twice as much as those in the private sector – how dare those people complain about having to pay for it!
If LLNL had given out the raises on time in the first half of December, we would have the most recent raises in our wallets for 2011. Senior management postpones and postpones and now we are all screwed. If we had gotten our salary cards on 12/15, we would at least have that going forward. Instead, senior management was slow and uncaring. You should blame the LLNL top management as much as Chu or Obama for this mess.
In my 5:20 PM post I wrote - "...and if you don't spend what congress has set forth to spend in appropriations, that's legal too."
It should be "that's illegal too."
At SNL this year (2010), tech staff member’s pensions were slashed dramatically (i.e. new formulas that are difficult to fully understand --- even the lab president got stumped when he was trying to explain it), healthcare was revamped to be a high deductable catastrophic insurance plan, and now no Cost of Living Adjustment or raise.
SNL Union workers got/get a 4% pay increase for the next 4 years and continue to keep their original pension & health care.
December 19, 2010 6:51 PM:
SNL raises have gone out, but the guidance on Friday was that those increases are gone. So, fret not, if LLNL had give you your raises, you'd just be even angrier.
YOU ARE WRONG! Trying to make LLNL feel better? This is the incorrect statement:
SNL raises have gone out, but the guidance on Friday was that those increases are gone. So, fret not, if LLNL had give you your raises, you'd just be even angrier.
Secretary Chu needs to understand that the Labs cannot attract and retain the best and brightest while continuing to underpay them. We're having trouble finding research staff now, and a two year pay freeze will make that significantly harder. In 2002, the Congressional Budget Office found that 85 percent of all professional and administrative government personnel were underpaid by more than 20 percent compared to their private sector equivalents. See http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=3992&type=0 Salary packages at LLNL have not kept up with the national inflation rate since then, and this only makes the problem worse.
"Thank you Sir, can I have another?
At what point do we form picket line and start riots like the French. Let's do it!!
You don't have to be an LLNLscientist to know we are going t be screwed:
TCP1 contrib +2% in 2011 plus paying more for benefits = means a decrease!
I dont see how anyone, except folks within a couple of years of retirement or the parasitic type,
can stick around!
You can bet your sweet ass that Miller and Anastasio aren't going to tough it out for the next two years like the rest of us bottom feeders!
“Sharing the pain”? Not exactly. The so-called Pay Freeze for Federal employees affects only their cost-of-living-adjustment and does not reduce step increases or bonuses.
“The size of those increases ranges from 2.6 percent to 3.3 percent and by law kick in every one, two or three years, depending on an employee's time in grade.”
(http://www.federaltimes.com/article/20101206/BENEFITS01/12060301/1046/BENEFITS01)
Since contractor COLA and performance increases are combined into a single raise package, making all increases to contractor’s salaries unallowable while allowing increases in Federal employee wages through step increases is not equitably “sharing the pain.”
While Obama and the strangely unsupportive Chu are certainly at the heart of the matter, it’s the Republicans who have been leading the charge on this Pay Freeze. And from that party are some of the worst offenders for increasing their own staff’s wages.
(http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/12/20/national/w000707S29.DTL)
For a time the SNL pension fund was over-funded and DOE made noise about absconding with money from that fund. Since the economy tanked the pension fund is underfunded and DOE is strangely silent. Now, on top of a reduction in pension pay-outs to employees yet to retire, DOE takes even more money away from contract employees and their families just before the holidays. More of a reduction than the Feds are willing to enforce upon themselves.
In reference to this thread's title: Blame it on W.
Did you notice LLNL senior managers quietly giving promotions to their friends in October and November? They knew this was coming and in typically corrupt LLNS fashion, took of care of their buddies.
"You can bet your sweet ass that Miller and Anastasio aren't going to tough it out for the next two years like the rest of us bottom feeders!"
December 20, 2010 5:26 PM
If I was making $1.2M like mike or $370K plus like george and had their time in you could color me gone becasue those fools are going to get 100% pay for life anf don't need any more $$$. But then again being at home amd bored isn't so cool neither.
I saw this 3-years ago when LANS imposed a freeze on my salary at that time. It is only when large masses are impacted by a decision do we then "care". Welcome to the "deep freeze" folks! The deepest sympathy is for Bret Knapp who now has to listen to a bunch of cry babies in W and now X-Division. Couldn't happen to a nicer "guy".
I've got three years to go, two of which will have a pay freeze. My motivation to play my part in the yearly input/review process has seemed to diminish.
Thanks Chu, way to channel the spirit of O'Leary.
"The details of implementation are not yet available. ... I will keep you informed as we learn more."
We're anxious to hear how much your raise is this year, George. Please do keep us informed.
If LLNS really cared about its employees, it would convert all its fee into pay raised for the employees, and tell its corporate office to suck one up for the team.
"If LLNS really cared about its employees, ..."
Dream on, my friend.
Remember when SPSE was trying in 2007 to get your vote so it can enough votes to officially represent you without you having to even be an SPSE member. You said no or simply said nothing.
Do you see what it feels like to be at the mercy of corporate greed? condoned by DOE?
The light just went on.....
George and Steve are a pair of Sad Sacks filling billets. They care just about keeping stakeholders stupefied.
Now I get it. I am stupefied.
Will call in sick tomorrow while I stupefy around the house.
Merry Christmas to all my high-caliber, highly-paid, and highly-important workers at the National Laboratories. You are truly the National crowned heap that ensure our National Security and ensure our safety. I truly appreciate your valor and extreme dedication. Happy New Year too!
Sincerely, Secretary Steve Chu
P.S. Don't forget to vote for Obama in 2012!
At LANS ,Terry Wallace (Acting Lab Director) came forth in "General Haig style" to inform the workers at LANS that DOE "zeroed us". My only question is, where is/was his imminence Mikey? Wow, good work Mikey, thanks for defending us. What cracks me up is that Mikey always "comes off" like he is total control of the external affairs with DOE/NNSA, Congress, Secretary of Energy, and the President. Yeah right!
Upper management is getting to be like CEO's. Actually thy have been shortly after LLNS and LANS were created. They still received their big fat bonuses this year from the award fee. At LANS managers were only to receive about a 1/2% raise while the grunts were to get 1.5 - 1.9%. I remember some years back when UC was still in charge there was this big study regarding pay equity. Everyone was supposed to receive equity in a few years really happened was that they started the process for senior managers first. But then after they got theirs the process stopped. Folks, we have been getting screwed for years. Also in the current freeze announcement at LANS it was stated that their will be exceptions and money for promotions. Of course there will for the managers and buddies as usual. Fuck em, I am going to skate from now on and be on sick leave as much as possible.
LLNS = LACKADAISICAL LESSER MANAGEMENT SKILLS
Mikey doesn't deserve to stand in the shadows of Oppenheimer, Bradbury, Agnew, Hecker, and Browne. He could stand in Nanos' shadow, except Nanos for some reason doesn't cast a shadow.
I just canceled my 2011 HOME Campaign contributions. I can no longer afford to participate in this program with a pay freeze and TCP1 contributions beginning in 2011.
2:35, you must have been expecting a good pay raise? The approved packages were unknown before you committed to your HOME contribution, and you already knew about TCP1 contributions. So I just find it odd that you're suddenly cancelling. My guess is whoever you were going to contribute to still needs it more than you do.
As we prepare for the winter closure, I take this opportunity to thank each of you for your hard work and dedication over the past year. Your efforts and accomplishments in support of our mission are appreciated.
You have not only contributed to ensuring the nation’s security, meeting our goals, and furthering scientific excellence, you have touched the lives of many of our Northern New Mexico neighbors through your generous participation in community outreach initiatives throughout the year. You admirably represent the can-do, will-do legacy of Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As with each new year, 2011 will no doubt bring its share of challenges, but I am confident we will be up to the task. Take time during the closure to relax, reconnect with family and friends, and reinvigorate yourself for our return in January.
On behalf of the Laboratory leadership team, I extend warmest wishes to you and yours for an enjoyable and safe season.
Michael Anastasio
P.S. I will immediately transfer the money that was going to used for your raises to the "leadership team special fund". My leadership team has decided that we have had to endure painful sacrifices and tribulations this year and frankly, my leadership team deserves "the money" more than you working folk. In view of this, I will continue to offer words, and more words, of continuing praise and love to ensure staff morale remains high and we deliver on our PBIs (aka leadership team supplemental bonus money).
"Mikey doesn't deserve to stand in the shadows of Oppenheimer, Bradbury, Agnew, Hecker, and Browne. He could stand in Nanos' shadow, except Nanos for some reason doesn't cast a shadow.
December 22, 2010 9:32 AM"
Good one! But, you forgot Kerr, the inventor of the matrix.
I have a PhD and I have been here at the Lab for over 30 years. The Laboratory has had its ups and downs but LLNS is a trainwreck. This new era of no reward for performance (e.g., pay raise) but rewards for being an employee of a partner company (e.g., large bonus), or rewards for their sycophants,is shameful. I'm retiring. I had no plans to retire a few months ago but now I'm leaving in January.
December 23, 2010 1:07 PM
That was refreshing. May you dwell in the house of the Lord for eternity.
Amen
I too refuse to donate funds to make the Lab look good. I am angry
You say you're angry, but unless you're also homeless and hungry, don't take it out on those who are far worse off than yourself; you still have a good paying job, look around you.
Donate directly to charities of your choice, instead of through the lab?
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