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Sunday, September 22, 2013
bonuses
Is it true managers get 5 to 50K bonuses on top of their % pay raise?
47 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Yes, I've heard that...new sports cars or boats. They drive run of the mill cars to work to conceal the spoils.
I heard the min is 50k and increments 50k, so it is like 50k, 100k, 150k, so on however you have to be fairly high level like a Division leader or higher to get in on this. I suppose it is possible for lower level guys to get 5k, but why bother. The 50k increment I hear a standard corporate bonus as it is the amount to get over over psychological barriers that people naturally have to do dubious things and justify themselves. If you think of it like bribery no one is going to do the wrong thing for 5k, well at least most people I know. At 50k you would be shocked but the the majority people would take that. Corporate takeover has made this a science by now.
Well, if some of the fancy cars that I've seen parked on site are any indication, then there might be some truth to this. I drove in behind an Aston Martin Vantage one day...was headed towards the middle of the lab somewhere.
Umm, you make it sound like a small subset of people feel this way. Sorry pal it is more than 60%. LANL had an employee survey done several years ago and the results where brutal. From what I can tell moral is even worse at LLNL.
Know for a fact that one manager who was not all that high up got $100K/ year bonus and real raises when the rest of us actually doing the work got zip.
Very funny. You are just making that up. There is no manager, not even Parney, who gets anything like $100K bonus. The UC rules for their campuses is a maximum of 20% and since they control the bonus of most management at LLNL like Parney, the program PADs and the ADs a maximum of around $50K and maybe more for Parney is closer to the truth, assuming they get the maximum. Below that crowd I bet the bonus drops to zero, since it would need to come from the variable compensation plan, and that was zero this year.
"Very funny. You are just making that up. There is no manager, not even Parney, who gets anything like $100K bonus. The UC rules for their campuses is a maximum of 20% and since they control the bonus of most management at LLNL like Parney, the program PADs and the ADs a maximum of around $50K and maybe more for Parney is closer to the truth, assuming they get the maximum. Below that crowd I bet the bonus drops to zero, since it would need to come from the variable compensation plan, and that was zero this year.
September 23, 2013 at 7:12 PM"
Fair enough but why is it hushed up so much? Why all the secrecy? Someone asked about the some real numbers however it is propitiatory. Very strange. I know I know in modern corporate American that is the way it is done. Ya but look where modern corporate America got us.
I can't think of a bigger, or more useless, waste of time than bitching about how much money someone else is making. Really, you can't get verifiable information about it, and even if you could, there's nothing you could do about it. If this is the most important thing you can think of to spend your time on, you have way too much of it.
I think it's very important for everyone to know what everyone else makes. It shows what type of scumbags get paid big bucks for being assholes and shows the American people just what hatchet men get paid and what they are doing to get paid these ungodly fees.
"Scumbags" "Assholes" "Hatchet Men"...You are the reason everyone's salary should be private. Your hatred and vitriol make civilized discourse impossible. I hope you are on NSA's "potential terrorist" list - you sound like you are about to make the national news.
This bonus thread is fabricated...but the blogger who mentioned LOW morale hit the nail on the head. Morale is REALLY low - especially in the Engineering Directorate. How 'bout you Engineering employees chime in and describe the morale in your neck of the woods?
""Scumbags" "Assholes" "Hatchet Men"...You are the reason everyone's salary should be private. Your hatred and vitriol make civilized discourse impossible. I hope you are on NSA's "potential terrorist" list - you sound like you are about to make the national news.
September 24, 2013 at 2:29 PM"
God I hope this is a joke on your part. This is a blog for making comments and in some cases rants. "Assholes" and "hatchet men" may be colorful euphemisms however it is a blunt way of describing the modern corporate corruption culture. In case you just arrived on earth the past 5 years have shown what the modern corporate mindset does to an economy. As for your "potential terrorist" remark. To quote Micheal Moore "there is no terrorist threat, there is no terrorist threat". What the 9/11 terrorist wanted was to make us afraid and cause American to turn on itself and surrender to fear. We have been very obliging to this. Your comment is exactly what the terrorists want you to say. They want you to become afraid, scare others, and diminish freedom. Your are now complicit to the desires of the terrorists. You a very sad pathetic person.
I can't think of a bigger, or more useless, waste of time than bitching about how much money someone else is making. Really, you can't get verifiable information about it, and even if you could, there's nothing you could do about it. If this is the most important thing you can think of to spend your time on, you have way too much of it.
September 24, 2013 at 8:19 AM"
Perhaps because you don't think at all. It is obvious way the salary and pay at institutions like the labs, the military and other government run things should be public. It is to make sure that someone is not getting a huge payout that can corrupt there decisions. Now imagine a corporation that runs such an institute say perhaps has put profit over the interests of the United States. If you pay certain people enough money no one will talk or rock the boat. This is why it is called transparency. In a free market corporate world companies that try to cheat the customer will be vulnerable to competing companies that may not cheat and deliver a better product. In this way free markets bring out the true value of things and also tendency to bring out honest practices. Of course this takes time. In the modern corporate takeover of things that the government used to run they have found a way to get rid of the free market competition. Ultimately this is why there can be such corporation when companies run stuff for the government or make stuff for the government. One check is to know what the salaries are. As for there is nothing you can do, this is also incorrect. Over time people will see how bad these types of corruptions are and things can slowly change. Look the economy is recovering so slowly now that even the most diehard postmodern type has to admit that the modern corporate way of corruption that got us into this mess does not work, and we are seeing changes.
Yes, and they are all for the positive in the economy (except in California, perhaps, where Governor Moonbeam holds sway). In any case, your anti-corporate rant is ignoring the very state that has made America great, and most (but not all) Americans richer than most other citizens of the world. The time is ripe for all knowledgeable US citizens to get out and invest in the greatest economy in the world. If you persist in your pessimism, you will reap the sad results of your own prophesy. Guess you'll be happy then?
"Yes, and they are all for the positive in the economy (except in California, perhaps, where Governor Moonbeam holds sway). In any case, your anti-corporate rant is ignoring the very state that has made America great, and most (but not all) Americans richer than most other citizens of the world. The time is ripe for all knowledgeable US citizens to get out and invest in the greatest economy in the world. If you persist in your pessimism, you will reap the sad results of your own prophesy. Guess you'll be happy then?
September 24, 2013 at 9:56 PM"
This is truly a naive and ignorant statement for totally obvious reasons.
Oh I forgot to mention this in my last post. These two people are retired from LLNL by now and don't have a clue I endorse their ideology, have kept their quotes and probably don't care. All that matters is they've express their opinions and it's on the web for all to read. Who knows they could be dead by now.
Those days are dead a stinking and that my friend is the absolute problem and it why the tombstone says what it says. Until all private contracts are dissolved, the $17T deficit is paid in full, Obamacare is overturned, and defined pension programs are brought back, science is out the window and will always take a backseat to personal financial security.
To 9/25 12:06pm. The labs are not managed like the old days but the bonuses paid out by UC are not going to be different than what their own policies allow. Bechtel bonuses may be a different story, but usually corporate salaries are low and bonuses high. So they probably pay less in salary than what UC does for their people but higher bonuses.
You know the corporate overlords also want to make sure that the guns are taken away from the people. Only a special class or the 1% of people should allowed to have guns. It is a free market though if you earn your right or enough money you get to be in that class. Once this happens scum like you will saying how it is low class to complain about those with money.
"isn't me, but he sure did plagiarize my September 24, 2013 at 8:19 AM post. I guess if someone can't put together English sentences himself, he needs to borrow them from someone else. Always happy to help the illiterate."
Well there is some kind of fascist posting on this blog. Hey American won WWII you lost, get over it.
"Please take your racist bigot KKK loving anit-America ass back to 1930 nazi Germany"
What's great about this post is it's discribes exactly what the anti-gun cartel supported by the socialist democratic party is trying to accomplish for the very same purpose. I love it.
Privatizing national lab management misguided Roger Logan and Jeff Colvin Wednesday, September 25, 2013 SF Chronicle
In their obsession with privatization as the cure-all for government and bureaucratic inefficiencies, Big Business and its political allies continue to beguile the American public with promises that this is the way to save tax dollars, provide better services or products and, in some cases, create jobs.
But taxpayers, Congress and the Obama administration would be wise to do more than beware of these pledges; they should take a look at what happens when private corporations become government contractors. Unencumbered by scrutiny and driven by self-interest and short-term profit, they flout the nation's fair-employment laws and dodge accountability.
A case in point: Several years ago, the U.S. Department of Energy put management of our nuclear weapons research and development labs out for bid. Against the advice of many, DOE awarded the contract for both labs (Lawrence Livermore in the Bay Area and Los Alamos in New Mexico) to a single private partnership comprising the University of California Regents, Bechtel Corp., and other private companies. This created the Holy Grail of unaccountable profiteering: Not just a for-profit monopoly, but a taxpayer-funded for-profit monopoly.
Right off the bat, the combined management fees - footed by the taxpayer - rose by at least $240 million over six years as Lawrence Livermore National Security notified 430 employees - most of them, long-tenured professionals over age 40 - that their services would no longer be needed. The employees were given one hour to pack up their belongings while being watched, had their badges confiscated, then were "perp-walked" out the gate like common criminals. The layoffs of career scientists and researchers drained the lab of experience and know-how - certainly not a move that enhances national security and readiness.
LLNS whined to Congress that a $280 million budget shortfall necessitated the first layoffs in the lab in 35 years.
Now more than a third of the laid-off workers are suing LLNS for wrongful dismissal and, in some instances, age discrimination. After a two-month-long trial on five of the cases earlier this year, an Alameda County Superior Court jury found the partnership liable for kicking the employees to the curb, and awarded them $2.7 million. Rather than cut its losses by settling the remaining 125 cases, LLNS has opted to fight each one - and, why not, when LLNS is insisting that DOE and the taxpayers should cough up the $2.7 million to pay for its unlawful actions?
Meanwhile, a coalition of liberal and conservative think tanks proposes "re-imagining the national labs." They recommend changes that only a government contractor could love in a report titled "Turning the Page" released this summer. Most of the purported reforms would give contractors even more leeway and even less accountability at a time that clearly demands more aggressive oversight and control on behalf of the common, not corporate, good.
LLNS' outrageous disregard for U.S. tax dollars, its own employees, the civil justice system and, now, its own legal liability is a travesty. The lab partnership broke the law, has made a mess of workers' lives and has cost the taxpayers more, not less money.
If ever there were a poster boy for privatization gone bad, this is it.
This article is mostly nonsense. The fee is not the issue. At both LANL and LLNL it is around 3% maximum. So if they each get the maximum it's $50M at LLNL and $80M at LANL. For both that is a maximum of about $130M. If they get 80% more like $105M. About 40% goes to UC which goes back to the labs in joint UC/Lab projects. Part of the rest goes to things like community, reserves for non-reimbursable overruns, family days, and things like that.
The "profit" vs "nonprofit" affects the Labs mainly on how the pension works (pretax vs posttax employee contributions). At LANL it caused a big increase in overhead because of the NM taxes.
"For profit" isn't what it seems. If LANL cuts costs that has no impact in the bottom line (unless those cost reductions lead to a reduction in overall funding from nnsa, in which case the result is a loss of fee). Llns and lans are not for profit companies in the usual sense. There are none of the cost controls a typical for profit company has that impact profit. LANS and LLNS work for fee, the majority of which is fixed. What makes them "for profit" is just because of the nature of the firms that make up the company that operates the labs. SNL has always in that sense been "for profit" despite the fact that for a long time the fee was $1. JPL (a nasa lab) is "not for profit" because it is operated by cal tech, a non-profit institution. PNNL is a not for profit because they are operated by Battelle, which is a not for profit company (although their executives make a fortune, fly on corporate jets, get huge bonuses). OAK ridge is joint UT and Battelle, so it's the same. But in all these cases the reimbursement is fee, and what makes it "profit" is what happens to the funds. For Bechtel it is part of their bottom line. For Battelle or UC or CalTech it's part of their "non profit" revenue.
What caused the problem at transition for both labs was only a little bit the fee. At LANL and LLNL the health care costs went way up since they couldn't negotiate rates as a big player anymore. The other big effect was that the pension ended, and the labs needed to make 401(k) contributions, a big deal. at LANL they also got hit with the NM tax.
The decision to bring in bechtel and b&w and urs was based on the problems at mainly LANL. Whether that was effective and worth the costs (which are mostly not "fee" and not in any sense due to a desire to increase bottom line) remains to be seen.
LLNS is an llc separate and different than UC. True. But senior manager bonuses are apportioned to different organizations. Bechtel probably pays the bonus for o&b. Also probably for the deputy Director. Maybe others. UC probably pays the bonus for Parney, Goldstein, and the ADs. Maybe Verdon and Moses. In each case they won't pay more than their own policies permit. So for the UC people it is probably a maximum of 20% of their salary.
Your very interesting, and totally made-up, story about bonuses is full of "probably" and "maybe." No facts there, just your odd view of how the world works. Thanks for sharing.
Your very interesting, and totally made-up, story about bonuses is full of "probably" and "maybe." No facts there, just your odd view of how the world works. Thanks for sharing.
September 28, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Awh, but what we all know and all that really counts is LLNS management gets big bonus checks for screwing over its employees, cutting people, benefits and making sure they get rid of them just prior to 50 years old so they're not entitled to anything. It's been their SOP since 2006 and it's never going to stop. LLNL and LANL are like slaughter houses, roll them in and drag them out.
...making sure they get rid of them just prior to 50 years old so they're not entitled to anything.
If they are UC or TCP-1 and vested in the respective pension, then they are still entitled to something. Clearly, depending on their circumstances they might need to start drawing benefits before their "age factor" maxes out. And the intersection with retaining any health benefit is a real complication.
Not saying it is anything like they imagined, but it's not zero.
It's called 99% of the employees perception and that's what matters.
October 1, 2013 at 6:39 AM
Who are the people to whom perception matters more than facts? And why should anyone care what matters to them? If you truly believe that 99% of LLNL employees care more about perception than facts, then LLNL as an institution is no longer worth funding with taxpayer money.
Who are the people to whom perception matters more than facts?
It's called the "general tax paying public" who pay your wages and since "many" of them know about this site and read it, it has become very clear their tax dollars are not being spent correctly. They would prefer the tax dollar to be spent on construction of new and proven power plants using solar, wind, sea, and geothermal than dreams or promises which end up being a tool / toy yet functional.
They would prefer the tax dollar to be spent on construction of new and proven power plants using solar, wind, sea, and geothermal...
October 2, 2013 at 4:50 AM
Fact: Do some research into the magnitude of the projected increase in energy demand over the next few decades, mostly in the developing world. You will quickly find that so-called "renewable" energy sources can't possibly help. Fossil fuel is the only source that can meet that demand. And it WILL be met. We can build all the windmills you want in the US, but they will just be a second-rate energy source to fuel our second-rate economy, as the decline of America continues.
47 comments:
Yes, I've heard that...new sports cars or boats. They drive run of the mill cars to work to conceal the spoils.
I heard the min is 50k and increments 50k, so it is like 50k, 100k, 150k, so on however you have to be fairly high level like a Division leader or higher to get in on this. I suppose it is possible for lower level guys to get 5k, but why bother. The 50k increment I hear a standard corporate bonus as it is the amount to get over over psychological barriers that people naturally have to do dubious things and justify themselves. If you think of it like bribery no one is going to do the wrong thing for 5k, well at least most people I know. At 50k you would be shocked but the the majority people would take that. Corporate takeover has made this a science by now.
Cannot wait for you people to retire.
Well, if some of the fancy cars that I've seen parked on site are any indication, then there might be some truth to this. I drove in behind an Aston Martin Vantage one day...was headed towards the middle of the lab somewhere.
"Cannot wait for you people to retire.
September 22, 2013 at 9:37 PM"
Umm, you make it sound like a small subset of people feel this way. Sorry pal it is more than 60%. LANL had an employee survey done several years ago and the results where brutal. From what I can tell moral is even worse at LLNL.
Know for a fact that one manager who was not all that high up got $100K/ year bonus and real raises when the rest of us actually doing the work got zip.
No real evidence here - just "I heard..." Anyone care to supply a real, verifiable fact in the face of all this rabble rousing?
Very funny. You are just making that up. There is no manager, not even Parney, who gets anything like $100K bonus. The UC rules for their campuses is a maximum of 20% and since they control the bonus of most management at LLNL like Parney, the program PADs and the ADs a maximum of around $50K and maybe more for Parney is closer to the truth, assuming they get the maximum. Below that crowd I bet the bonus drops to zero, since it would need to come from the variable compensation plan, and that was zero this year.
"Very funny. You are just making that up. There is no manager, not even Parney, who gets anything like $100K bonus. The UC rules for their campuses is a maximum of 20% and since they control the bonus of most management at LLNL like Parney, the program PADs and the ADs a maximum of around $50K and maybe more for Parney is closer to the truth, assuming they get the maximum. Below that crowd I bet the bonus drops to zero, since it would need to come from the variable compensation plan, and that was zero this year.
September 23, 2013 at 7:12 PM"
Fair enough but why is it hushed up so much? Why all the secrecy? Someone asked about the some real numbers however it is propitiatory. Very strange. I know I know in modern corporate American that is the way it is done. Ya but look where modern corporate America got us.
I can't think of a bigger, or more useless, waste of time than bitching about how much money someone else is making. Really, you can't get verifiable information about it, and even if you could, there's nothing you could do about it. If this is the most important thing you can think of to spend your time on, you have way too much of it.
September 24, 2013 at 8:19 AM
I think it's very important for everyone to know what everyone else makes. It shows what type of scumbags get paid big bucks for being assholes and shows the American people just what hatchet men get paid and what they are doing to get paid these ungodly fees.
September 24, 2013 at 9:02 AM
"Scumbags" "Assholes" "Hatchet Men"...You are the reason everyone's salary should be private. Your hatred and vitriol make civilized discourse impossible. I hope you are on NSA's "potential terrorist" list - you sound like you are about to make the national news.
Salary envy is just low-rent.
This bonus thread is fabricated...but the blogger who mentioned LOW morale hit the nail on the head. Morale is REALLY low - especially in the Engineering Directorate. How 'bout you Engineering employees chime in and describe the morale in your neck of the woods?
""Scumbags" "Assholes" "Hatchet Men"...You are the reason everyone's salary should be private. Your hatred and vitriol make civilized discourse impossible. I hope you are on NSA's "potential terrorist" list - you sound like you are about to make the national news.
September 24, 2013 at 2:29 PM"
God I hope this is a joke on your part. This is a blog for making comments and in some cases rants. "Assholes" and "hatchet men" may be colorful euphemisms however it is a blunt way of describing the modern corporate corruption culture. In case you just arrived on earth the past 5 years have shown what the modern corporate mindset does to an economy. As for your "potential terrorist" remark. To quote Micheal Moore "there is no terrorist threat, there is no terrorist threat". What the 9/11 terrorist wanted was to make us afraid and cause American to turn on itself and surrender to fear. We have been very obliging to this. Your comment is exactly what the terrorists want you to say. They want you to become afraid, scare others, and diminish freedom. Your are now complicit to the desires of the terrorists. You a very sad pathetic person.
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
I can't think of a bigger, or more useless, waste of time than bitching about how much money someone else is making. Really, you can't get verifiable information about it, and even if you could, there's nothing you could do about it. If this is the most important thing you can think of to spend your time on, you have way too much of it.
September 24, 2013 at 8:19 AM"
Perhaps because you don't think at all. It is obvious way the salary and pay at institutions like the labs, the military and other government run things should be public. It is to make sure that someone is not getting a huge payout that can corrupt there decisions. Now imagine a corporation that runs such an institute say perhaps has put profit over the interests of the United States. If you pay certain people enough money no one will talk or rock the boat. This is why it is called transparency. In a free market corporate world companies that try to cheat the customer will be vulnerable to competing companies that may not cheat and deliver a better product. In this way free markets bring out the true value of things and also tendency to bring out honest practices. Of course this takes time. In the modern corporate takeover of things that the government used to run they have found a way to get rid of the free market competition. Ultimately this is why there can be such corporation when companies run stuff for the government or make stuff for the government. One check is to know what the salaries are. As for there is nothing you can do, this is also incorrect. Over time people will see how bad these types of corruptions are and things can slowly change. Look the economy is recovering so slowly now that even the most diehard postmodern type has to admit that the modern corporate way of corruption that got us into this mess does not work, and we are seeing changes.
we are seeing changes.
September 24, 2013 at 8:17 PM
Yes, and they are all for the positive in the economy (except in California, perhaps, where Governor Moonbeam holds sway). In any case, your anti-corporate rant is ignoring the very state that has made America great, and most (but not all) Americans richer than most other citizens of the world. The time is ripe for all knowledgeable US citizens to get out and invest in the greatest economy in the world. If you persist in your pessimism, you will reap the sad results of your own prophesy. Guess you'll be happy then?
Knapp gets a $20K bonus whenever a hydro is shot.
"Yes, and they are all for the positive in the economy (except in California, perhaps, where Governor Moonbeam holds sway). In any case, your anti-corporate rant is ignoring the very state that has made America great, and most (but not all) Americans richer than most other citizens of the world. The time is ripe for all knowledgeable US citizens to get out and invest in the greatest economy in the world. If you persist in your pessimism, you will reap the sad results of your own prophesy. Guess you'll be happy then?
September 24, 2013 at 9:56 PM"
This is truly a naive and ignorant statement for totally obvious reasons.
"-"Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter don't mind and those that mind don’t matter" --
September 25, 2013 at 4:55 AM"
That is until freedom is gone and they take you away for saying what you feel. Real nice buddy.
September 25, 2013 at 6:03 AM
Oh I forgot to mention this in my last post. These two people are retired from LLNL by now and don't have a clue I endorse their ideology, have kept their quotes and probably don't care. All that matters is they've express their opinions and it's on the web for all to read. Who knows they could be dead by now.
Some people here act as if they are being horribly mistreated by the Warden and his jailers. Hey, dumbasses, the cell door is open.
September 25, 2013 at 8:26 AM
You first, comrade.
I like the 9/23 comment above where the person believes LLNL is managed by UC like a UC campus. Must be nice to live in 2006 forever.
Those days are dead a stinking and that my friend is the absolute problem and it why the tombstone says what it says. Until all private contracts are dissolved, the $17T deficit is paid in full, Obamacare is overturned, and defined pension programs are brought back, science is out the window and will always take a backseat to personal financial security.
Oh I forgot to mention this in my last post.
September 25, 2013 at 6:32 AM
Yes!! Fantastic news!! About time!!
Oh, wait, I thought you said "this IS my last post." Damn.
Until all private contracts are dissolved, the $17T deficit is paid in full, Obamacare is overturned, and defined pension programs are brought back...
September 25, 2013 at 1:21 PM
So in other words, never. Those boats have all sailed.
To 9/25 12:06pm. The labs are not managed like the old days but the bonuses paid out by UC are not going to be different than what their own policies allow. Bechtel bonuses may be a different story, but usually corporate salaries are low and bonuses high. So they probably pay less in salary than what UC does for their people but higher bonuses.
September 25, 2013 at 6:03 AM
You know the corporate overlords also want to make sure that the guns are taken away from the people. Only a special class or the 1% of people should allowed to have guns. It is a free market though if you earn your right or enough money you get to be in that class. Once this happens scum like you will saying how it is low class to complain about those with money.
"isn't me, but he sure did plagiarize my September 24, 2013 at 8:19 AM post. I guess if someone can't put together English sentences himself, he needs to borrow them from someone else. Always happy to help the illiterate."
Well there is some kind of fascist posting on this blog. Hey American won WWII you lost, get over it.
September 25, 2013 at 8:22 PM
Please take your racist bigot KKK loving anit-America ass back to 1930 nazi Germany.
All right! This thread is really "in the groove" now. We're finally getting up to the high standards this blog strives for.
September 25, 2013 at 8:22 PM
"Please take your racist bigot KKK loving anit-America ass back to 1930 nazi Germany"
What's great about this post is it's discribes exactly what the anti-gun cartel supported by the socialist democratic party is trying to accomplish for the very same purpose. I love it.
Maybe this will get this post back on track:
Privatizing national lab management misguided
Roger Logan and Jeff Colvin
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
SF Chronicle
In their obsession with privatization as the cure-all for government and bureaucratic inefficiencies, Big Business and its political allies continue to beguile the American public with promises that this is the way to save tax dollars, provide better services or products and, in some cases, create jobs.
But taxpayers, Congress and the Obama administration would be wise to do more than beware of these pledges; they should take a look at what happens when private corporations become government contractors. Unencumbered by scrutiny and driven by self-interest and short-term profit, they flout the nation's fair-employment laws and dodge accountability.
A case in point: Several years ago, the U.S. Department of Energy put management of our nuclear weapons research and development labs out for bid. Against the advice of many, DOE awarded the contract for both labs (Lawrence Livermore in the Bay Area and Los Alamos in New Mexico) to a single private partnership comprising the University of California Regents, Bechtel Corp., and other private companies. This created the Holy Grail of unaccountable profiteering: Not just a for-profit monopoly, but a taxpayer-funded for-profit monopoly.
Right off the bat, the combined management fees - footed by the taxpayer - rose by at least $240 million over six years as Lawrence Livermore National Security notified 430 employees - most of them, long-tenured professionals over age 40 - that their services would no longer be needed. The employees were given one hour to pack up their belongings while being watched, had their badges confiscated, then were "perp-walked" out the gate like common criminals. The layoffs of career scientists and researchers drained the lab of experience and know-how - certainly not a move that enhances national security and readiness.
LLNS whined to Congress that a $280 million budget shortfall necessitated the first layoffs in the lab in 35 years.
Now more than a third of the laid-off workers are suing LLNS for wrongful dismissal and, in some instances, age discrimination. After a two-month-long trial on five of the cases earlier this year, an Alameda County Superior Court jury found the partnership liable for kicking the employees to the curb, and awarded them $2.7 million. Rather than cut its losses by settling the remaining 125 cases, LLNS has opted to fight each one - and, why not, when LLNS is insisting that DOE and the taxpayers should cough up the $2.7 million to pay for its unlawful actions?
Meanwhile, a coalition of liberal and conservative think tanks proposes "re-imagining the national labs." They recommend changes that only a government contractor could love in a report titled "Turning the Page" released this summer. Most of the purported reforms would give contractors even more leeway and even less accountability at a time that clearly demands more aggressive oversight and control on behalf of the common, not corporate, good.
LLNS' outrageous disregard for U.S. tax dollars, its own employees, the civil justice system and, now, its own legal liability is a travesty. The lab partnership broke the law, has made a mess of workers' lives and has cost the taxpayers more, not less money.
If ever there were a poster boy for privatization gone bad, this is it.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Privatizing-national-lab-management-misguided-4843513.php
This article is mostly nonsense. The fee is not the issue. At both LANL and LLNL it is around 3% maximum. So if they each get the maximum it's $50M at LLNL and $80M at LANL. For both that is a maximum of about $130M. If they get 80% more like $105M. About 40% goes to UC which goes back to the labs in joint UC/Lab projects. Part of the rest goes to things like community, reserves for non-reimbursable overruns, family days, and things like that.
The "profit" vs "nonprofit" affects the Labs mainly on how the pension works (pretax vs posttax employee contributions). At LANL it caused a big increase in overhead because of the NM taxes.
"For profit" isn't what it seems. If LANL cuts costs that has no impact in the bottom line (unless those cost reductions lead to a reduction in overall funding from nnsa, in which case the result is a loss of fee). Llns and lans are not for profit companies in the usual sense. There are none of the cost controls a typical for profit company has that impact profit. LANS and LLNS work for fee, the majority of which is fixed. What makes them "for profit" is just because of the nature of the firms that make up the company that operates the labs. SNL has always in that sense been "for profit" despite the fact that for a long time the fee was $1. JPL (a nasa lab) is "not for profit" because it is operated by cal tech, a non-profit institution. PNNL is a not for profit because they are operated by Battelle, which is a not for profit company (although their executives make a fortune, fly on corporate jets, get huge bonuses). OAK ridge is joint UT and Battelle, so it's the same. But in all these cases the reimbursement is fee, and what makes it "profit" is what happens to the funds. For Bechtel it is part of their bottom line. For Battelle or UC or CalTech it's part of their "non profit" revenue.
What caused the problem at transition for both labs was only a little bit the fee. At LANL and LLNL the health care costs went way up since they couldn't negotiate rates as a big player anymore. The other big effect was that the pension ended, and the labs needed to make 401(k) contributions, a big deal. at LANL they also got hit with the NM tax.
The decision to bring in bechtel and b&w and urs was based on the problems at mainly LANL. Whether that was effective and worth the costs (which are mostly not "fee" and not in any sense due to a desire to increase bottom line) remains to be seen.
They got the headline right:
"Privatizing National Lab Management Misguided"
But then failed to support it with any of the relevant points/analysis.
I agree with 9:09 PM. The fee is a small issue, compared with everything else that has happened...
The labs don't "need to make 401k contributions"...they can stop that anytime they feel like it.
The 9/25 6:58 posting insists UC policies govern LLNS. LLNS is a LLC that is separate and different than UC.
LLNS is an llc separate and different than UC. True. But senior manager bonuses are apportioned to different organizations. Bechtel probably pays the bonus for o&b. Also probably for the deputy Director. Maybe others. UC probably pays the bonus for Parney, Goldstein, and the ADs. Maybe Verdon and Moses. In each case they won't pay more than their own policies permit. So for the UC people it is probably a maximum of 20% of their salary.
September 28, 2013 at 2:21 AM:
Your very interesting, and totally made-up, story about bonuses is full of "probably" and "maybe." No facts there, just your odd view of how the world works. Thanks for sharing.
Your very interesting, and totally made-up, story about bonuses is full of "probably" and "maybe." No facts there, just your odd view of how the world works. Thanks for sharing.
September 28, 2013 at 10:13 PM
Awh, but what we all know and all that really counts is LLNS management gets big bonus checks for screwing over its employees, cutting people, benefits and making sure they get rid of them just prior to 50 years old so they're not entitled to anything. It's been their SOP since 2006 and it's never going to stop. LLNL and LANL are like slaughter houses, roll them in and drag them out.
September 30, 2013 at 5:23 AM:
Facts just aren't your strong suit, are they?
...making sure they get rid of them just prior to 50 years old so they're not entitled to anything.
If they are UC or TCP-1 and vested in the respective pension, then they are still entitled to something. Clearly, depending on their circumstances they might need to start drawing benefits before their "age factor" maxes out. And the intersection with retaining any health benefit is a real complication.
Not saying it is anything like they imagined, but it's not zero.
Facts just aren't your strong suit, are they?
September 30, 2013 at 9:07 AM
It's called 99% of the employees perception and that's what matters.
It's called 99% of the employees perception and that's what matters.
October 1, 2013 at 6:39 AM
Who are the people to whom perception matters more than facts? And why should anyone care what matters to them? If you truly believe that 99% of LLNL employees care more about perception than facts, then LLNL as an institution is no longer worth funding with taxpayer money.
Who are the people to whom perception matters more than facts?
It's called the "general tax paying public" who pay your wages and since "many" of them know about this site and read it, it has become very clear their tax dollars are not being spent correctly. They would prefer the tax dollar to be spent on construction of new and proven power plants using solar, wind, sea, and geothermal than dreams or promises which end up being a tool / toy yet functional.
They would prefer the tax dollar to be spent on construction of new and proven power plants using solar, wind, sea, and geothermal...
October 2, 2013 at 4:50 AM
Fact: Do some research into the magnitude of the projected increase in energy demand over the next few decades, mostly in the developing world. You will quickly find that so-called "renewable" energy sources can't possibly help. Fossil fuel is the only source that can meet that demand. And it WILL be met. We can build all the windmills you want in the US, but they will just be a second-rate energy source to fuel our second-rate economy, as the decline of America continues.
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