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This BLOG is for LLNL present and past employees, friends of LLNL and anyone impacted by the privatization of the Lab to express their opinions and expose the waste, wrongdoing and any kind of injustice against employees and taxpayers by LLNS/DOE/NNSA. The opinions stated are personal opinions. Therefore, The BLOG author may or may not agree with them before making the decision to post them. Comments not conforming to BLOG rules are deleted. Blog author serves as a moderator. For new topics or suggestions, email jlscoob5@gmail.com

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

March Memo & Our Letter to Parney

This month the SPSE-UPTE board sent a letter to Director Parney Albright voicing our concerns regarding recent changes in LLNS personnel policies and the direction of the Laboratory in general. You can read it at our Website:

    http://www.upte.org/spse/Parney20130301finalns.pdf

Also, in our March Memo, we discuss how LLNS has reached a settlement with the nine SPSE-UPTE-represented skilled trades employees wrongly laid off in 2008:

    http://www.upte.org/spse/201303MonthlyMemoFinal.pdf

As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions or comments.

Thanks,

Riki Gay, President,
SPSE-UPTE Local 11
spse@spse.org
925-449-4846
~~~~~~~~~~~

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

The union wins a majority of its claims because the Labor Relations board is very pro union (and liberal, like NPR, PBS, AARP, most media organizations including AP and Reuters, AMA, etc).

Case in point it is the same board that would not allow Boeing to open it's large plane manufacturing plant because they decided to get away from the union atmosphere and build it in a right to work state (N. or S. Carolina) and this was not too long ago when unemployment was even higher then it is now.

So I believe "any corporation" is going to loose a majority of times if an item goes to the NLRB with a Liberal POTUS appointing board members with that mentality.

I do not believe it is a matter of Law or right or wrong anymore, more so what ideology is more prevalent on the Board. If you do not believe that then I think you have blinders on. Both sides do this.

However the workers did get a settlement
(and I am not quite sure why they should have, people are layed off in private industry every day) and so the union wins this one.

Anonymous said...

UPTE: Great job
Too bad that the Koch brothers also had to comment.

Anonymous said...

Too bad that the Koch brothers also had to comment.

March 13, 2013 at 2:47 AM

In case you hadn't noticed, union membership % is in the 20's for public workers and the low teens for private workers. Seems not many people feel the need to pay union dues to support causes they don't agree with. If you find yourself in a position where you feel helpless and think you need a union, you've badly screwed up some of your life choices. BTW, the March 12, 2013 at 4:14 PM poster is way less conservative than the Koch brothers.

Anonymous said...

I hope more labbies successfully sue LLNS so you Fox News zombies can keep spinning yourselves up and quoting more from your god Ann Coulter and we can keep laughing at you.

Anonymous said...

If you find yourself in a position where you feel helpless and think you need a union, you've badly screwed up some of your life choices.

What are you afraid of?

Think about how much vacation times we have in the US compared to Switzerland, where the unions are much stronger. There, after 50 years you get 6 weeks, no matter how long you worked in the same place.
Also you get 3 month notice in case of a RIF.
But then again we don't want that kind of socialism here.


Anonymous said...

We had an Intern from Denmark and we have met others fom there through him.
Denmark's policies are pretty close to Switzerland.
They are both highly educated computer nerds and they both talk about how screwed up their country is with the Liberal policies.

Actually they are ashamed that people there have gotten so lazy and they also talk about how heavily unionized Denmark is.

They love America and are hard working and I do not think they are going to join UPTE anytime soon.

on another note they actually liked Fox News (true story) because they only get CNN overseas.

Anonymous said...

you Fox News zombies can keep spinning yourselves up and quoting more from your god Ann Coulter and we can keep laughing at you.

March 13, 2013 at 10:48 AM

If you were referring to March 13, 2013 at 9:00 AM, You failed to point out where the poster's data were incorrect.

Anonymous said...

Actually they are ashamed that people there have gotten so lazy and they also talk about how heavily unionized Denmark is.

Please stick to the point , which is Switzerland. To deduce from one intern from Denmark to Switzerland is a pretty big stretch, not only distance wise, but also in terms of measurable quantities like GDP/capita,
debt ...

http://countryeconomy.com/countries/compare/switzerland/denmark

But with views like those I am not surprised they like Fox.


On a different point, you could also look at Germany, which has strong unions.

But I am sure you will also find an intern from there who claims how lazy the germans are.


Just goes to show you that maybe a computer nerd should stick to computers.

Anonymous said...

Yes I think we all can agree that those PHD computer guys are not as smart as your typical union member.

Anonymous said...

" We had an Intern from Denmark and we have met others fom there through him.
Denmark's policies are pretty close to Switzerland."

Ya these are the two most f-up countries in the world. Total hell holes of liberal mush. Have you ever been to these places? It is horrible, just horrible. Everyone is unhappy, no works, it pure hell. I know there is this list of the most happy countries and the most wealthy but come on what does that mean? Sheep out to pasture are happy as well.

Anonymous said...

Hey if you don't like the United States than move to Switzerland you socialists!

March 13, 2013 at 8:07 PM

I love the US - I just regret that you are spouting your drivel to the extent that everyone in the world will think we are all as dumb as you.

PS - look up the difference between "than" and "then." Then, think about how dumb you are.

PPS - Not everyone who thinks you are dumb is a socialist. Dumb knows no political boundaries.

Anonymous said...

The difference between effective and ineffective is illustrated in the difference between the original posted letter LLNS/Parney and the rest of the posts on this thread which reflect a knee-jerk bias that may not serve as well as open-mindedness.

Scolding and bluster are not persuasion.

Employment conditions described under a negotiated contract are superior to those arbitarily dictated by one side, for an individual or for groups. (witness the resources expended by employers to retain the ability to arbitrarily change employment conditions -it is a profitable investment.)

Anonymous said...



Some people should not be allowed access to computers. Man, you are as dumb as a box of rocks.

March 13, 2013 at 7:15 PM

Maybe you should take a class in sarcasm and irony.


Anonymous said...

unions are for losers who can't take care of themselves. Back in the early eighties (Director Jack Kahn) the unions couldn't even get the required percentage needed to come in just to talk with the employees. I still remember my boss (Engineering Directorate) wearing a big button - red letters on white background. It said "NO Representation"....wish I had that button now!

Anonymous said...

March 14, 2013 at 5:31 PM

Repeating your statement over and over does not really make it more valid. I understand that you have a problem with unions, can't help that.

But maybe if you would show us how you got to that opinion, based on facts and not Fox propaganda, you will be more credible.
But based on the current CPAC circus, I doubt that you and your friends are actually able to learn.

Anonymous said...

This blog should stop allowing anonymous posts. You'll see a big improvement in the quality of discussions when identities must be disclosed with each post. It will be easier to block repeat troll offenders too.

scooby said...

It is not up to the BLOG to diallow anonymous contributions. It is Google. This feature is not configurable.

Anonymous said...

This blog should stop allowing anonymous posts. You'll see a big improvement in the quality of discussions when identities must be disclosed with each post. It will be easier to block repeat troll offenders too.

March 16, 2013 at 3:10 AM
Blogger scooby said...

It is not up to the BLOG to diallow anonymous contributions. It is Google. This feature is not configurable.

March 16, 2013 at 9:55 AM

The old LANL blog tried disallowing anonymous posts, and the traffic died immediately, and never pick up again. The blog was cancelled shortly thereafter.

Scooby, I believe the old LANL blog used the same hosting software, so unless the platform capabilities have changed, it should be possible to turn off anonymous posting. I don't recommend it.

Anonymous said...

If you turn off anonymous posting this blog will soon be a ghost town, I've seen it happen numerous times with other websites. You can tell immediately which posts are not worth reading, they usually contain numerous words in caps and poor spelling. They typically have a political agenda, and they for some reason hate on those who took TCP1. The motives behind the posts are quickly obvious after the first few words, easy to detect and skip.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work.

As conditions continue to deteriorate under government/doe/nnsa directives, there will come a time when a majority of professionals make a bet that they will be better served by a collectively-bargained employment contract with court enforceable provisions.

Entrust your fate to the Bruce Warner's and Tom D'Agostinos of the post apocalyptic Labworld or a well-written contract? Your call.

The person I know at Boeing likes the professional union. Someone is actually on his side -his words. New hires still get a sweet pension along with other traditional defered comp mechanisms.

Anonymous said...

The traditional objection is that the deep and wide-ranging job content of a lab professional is better than achievable under a traditional union arrangement. It is what makes working at a large national lab rewarding. Is this still true, or have those days already passed?

Anonymous said...

The professional union of engineers and scientists at Boeing just cut a powerful deal with their "for-profit" management.

It's possible. However, the totally broken spirit of the professional workforce that is left at the NNSA labs will probably never allow union representation to ever happen. You'll continue to take whatever scraps the upper management team from Bechtel throws to you on the floor.


Anonymous said...

I just don't see why a professional union is necessary. We're not slaves here, and as many posters point out, there are a lot of other employment options nearby. If anybody thinks they can get a better deal (however they define "better deal") elsewhere, they should take it. Not only would that be a better deal for those individuals, it would be a "vote with the feet" against the "deal" we have here.

I'm sure that a professional's union would help in a few areas (for example, fixing the recent changes in severance pay policies). But at what cost? Further increasing the difficulty of getting things done.

I just don't think things are anywhere near bad enough that adding a union to the mix would make it better.

Anonymous said...

I just don't think things are anywhere near bad enough that adding a union to the mix would make it better.

March 19, 2013 at 1:01 PM

Stated rather subtly. I would say that that condition hasn't existed since the 1950's and won't ever again.

Anonymous said...


"Further increasing the difficulty of getting things done"

Is it possible that it could get even more difficult to get things done at the lab...?

Wow. Doesn't seem possible.

Between the Bechtel BS and the NNSA/DOE/general gov BS we're pretty much at a standstill as is.

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