Monday, December 15, 2014
New gang at the helm for LANL at the start of FY17.
Current RUMOR at LANL is that for the second year in a row LANL was not awarded a contract extension. This would mean LANS has a termination date in FY18. However, the RUMOR also is that LANS will be punished with the removal of an additional year of the contract. If thesis true, there will be a new gang at the helm for LANL at the start of FY17.
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So does anyone have any info or rumors on what this would mean for LLNS/LLNL if LANS gets the boot at LANL?
Does UC stay in bed with evil Bechtel or find other partners or a different LLC construct for bidding on the LLNL contract when it comes up for renewal?
What's their contingency plan over in UC's Office of Lab Management? The fact the Kim B. the head of this office came from LLNL has to mean that UC will fight to hang on to the California Lab it founded.
Based on what has been made public LLNS/LANS is two legal entities that earns two separate fees and pays the members of its boards two separate compensations. The imminent dissolution of LANS should not have an immediate impact on LLNS, but in order to continue LLNS will need to get good grades each year from NNSA.
Kim lacks the talent, connections or gravitas to pull off another UC contract effort. She is not Glen Mara or even Admiral Easy Chair. Contract 44 needs major changes to reduce micromanagment, federal presence and to increase contractor independenace to return the leadership focus of the labs to the long-term health of the institution, culture and employees to provide the long-term scientific and technical basis stockpile. The path is well worn, and in the past. Kim doesnt get it and wont be able to articulate this in negotiations with strong DC egos, fools and ignorant nmicromanagers. UC should walk away to protect itself.
Likewise industry lacks the interest to put the required talent in place to run the place. They'll collect the check, but do nothing. Becthel has proven this by not putting up one, single talented leader to either lab over 7 years. ? For about $300M in award fees over 7 years??
Time for UT.
Im retired. But I gotta yell to my Homies,
" You guys are gonna get screwed again when a new operating contract is placed"
DOE budget cutters will look for savings which will come from employee compensation, because 85% of all lab expenses are for employee compensation.
They want money, if they are not opposed, they will rewrite the new contact to get it. I would. And you long-suffering friends, will be the victims.
No one will oppose them. It was done 7 years ago, and when another Tyler Pryzbylek shows up from NNSA contacting and says " I am here to help, and .. don't worry".
EXIT TO YOUR PLAN B.
LOOK OUT
Under a new operating contract the employee total compensation reduction efficiency measures could include:
1. Freeze and close TCP1 for current employees.
2. Reduce/eliminate 401k match
3. Eliminate retirement contributions.
4. Push employee medical copays to 50% or drop altogether and push employees into Obamacare.
5. Restrict the amount of unused sick leave that can be carried into the new contract.
6. Increase 401k fees.
7. Sell the LLNS pension system assets and liability to an insurance company at a large 8 figure profit.
8. Reduce work hours for support staff.
9. Terminate labor contracts so that all acquired contractor employee benefits are lost again.
10. Drop retiree medical, raise the rates and or change the eligibilty options.
11. Ask bidders to cap employee benefits burdens to industry averages.
12. Reduce employee medical/vacation leave accrual to industry averages.
13. Increase TCP-1 employee copay to 100%, employer 0%.
14. Stipulate in the contract that for the new bidders, employee compensation groups composition must match to match industry composition and to reduce employee wages in each group match industry wages. (this will move almost everybody down 10%- 20%, more if total compensation is used).
This list was composed by one of your friends. Imagine what the list will be when the human resource serpents begin to work their magic.
National weapons labs run by industy. Ha, Ha. Like Sony? Or Bechtel?
Just hand over the keys to kingdom.
Much of what 1:09 PM writes is how it is in industry today.
The life of being sheltered from such treatment for Lab employees is fast ending.
Thanks for nothing, Charlie and team!
So the message I want to leave to Congress is the following.
As crippled as it now is, if you open the contract to rebid the operating contract of LLNL you will have nothing.
UC will walk away. Key employees will walk away because you are a blundering, meddlesome, ignorant sponsor that blithely damages it own efforts.
Then you will have nothing. No one will know who knows what about weapons science and technology.
When the current LLCs are dissolved in a year or so, some universities might be willing to bid for running LLNL, but it is hard to see any university being willing to bid on operating LANL.
Perhaps NMSU could be paid enough to do the job, but even that just doesn't seem to be in the cards.
Can see it coming now for a headline:
The University of Phoenix wins competition over Kaplan University.
I think if LANS is dissolved by a lose of the LANL contract, UC would be wise to follow the Univ of Chicago approach for the LLC created to run Argonne National Lab.
Univ of Chicago solely owns the LLC, which has industrial partners supporting it. The Board's executive committee, similar to the ones for LLNS/LANS, controls decisions and is nominated by the University. Other board members are nominated by the industrial partners and support subcommittees. Lab employees are NOT University employees (as they once were when the University directly ran the Lab).
A UC owned LLC for LLNL could still have Bechtel, URS, et al, and they would get payed by the LLC for the help they actually provide the Lab. LLNL employees would still not be UC employees, and probably wouldn't feel any different at LLNL under a UC owned LLC than it does today, other than a return to closer ties to the campuses and LBNL.
This sort of LLC still shields UC from liability for LLNL operations. And if they named it something like - Livermore National Science Corporation, LLC - most would even know the UC connection.
It's too late to salvage the weapon labs with new and improved LLC contractors. Poster 1:09 pm is also right on the mark with his list. The plan will be to terminate or greatly reduce many of the benefits currently received by employees and retirees, just like they've done in the private industry world. They're already preparing to eventually force all employees onto the high deductible health plans to reduce costs.
The importance of the atomic weapon labs has greatly diminished in the last two decades. I'm not talking about the true importance of these labs and the production facilities, but the importance that the public and Congress place on these labs. They give occasional lip service but not much else.
This is not going to change anytime soon unless we (a) have another dangerous and expensive Cold War with Russia or (b) suffer another massive attack like that of 911. Let's hope that neither of these things take place.
"This is not going to change anytime soon unless we (a) have another dangerous and expensive Cold War with Russia ...
December 16, 2014 at 5:56 PM"
Actually, the statistics show that the cold war was not all that dangerous (compared to driving on the interstate, for example), and blowing sh-t up in the desert was great sport. Yeah, let's hear it for round two of cold war!
If December 16, 2014 at 1:09 PM is even close to being correct, you can finally kiss the fading "attract and retain the best and brightest" pipe dream good bye and say hello to mediocrity.
National weapons labs run by industy. Ha, Ha. Like Sony? Or Bechtel?
Just hand over the keys to kingdom.
December 16, 2014 at 1:18 PM
Are you kidding me, Best Buy would do a better job running the Labs than LANS/LLNS is doing. I hear they treat their employees with respect and dignity, AND their showrooms are operational.
If December 16, 2014 at 1:09 PM is even close to being correct, you can finally kiss the fading "attract and retain the best and brightest" pipe dream good bye and say hello to mediocrity.
December 16, 2014 at 8:25 PM
Study after study has shown that the "best and brightest" have neither been attracted to nor retained by institutions focused on nuclear weapons for twenty years. For a short period after implementation of the ban on underground testing, there was a tail of such types that entered and stayed in the system, but that has not been sustained since.
The allure of seemingly limitless research funds, large and new science and engineering facilities, benefits that were well above industry norms, and tenured job stability attracted much of the top talent in the era of active weapon testing. The situation changed slowly at first, but today's reality is that mediocrity is the norm and has been for some time.
December 17, 2014 at 5:24 AM
What is the "best and brightest" is only a personal definition. I would say that the best and brightest are the people who saw the writing on the wall and went into management at LLNS and LANS and now doing very well. The less bright bulbs and dimwits could not cut it as managers and now have to suffer their fate. This is Darwin's law and the way of the world, some have the skills and the ability to know how to succeed and others do not. The rules of meritocracy will win in end and have done so at the NNSA labs. The reality of our world is that money determines who is best, some people are making great money at the labs right now and under the rules of world are defined as the best and brightest. If this is not one of you than your have failed not the system... The universe is hostile. So impersonal. devour to survive. So it is. So it's always been.
Let's start another cold war and hope it don't go hot because I want a job. You pathetic self loathing garbage! I hope you get what you want! I'm ready are you?
POS
Hoping for a cold war or another CIA-lqueda attack to save your comfy life style shows how mentaly ill you really are. Good luck with that!
POS
Let's start another cold war...
POS
December 21, 2014 at 12:24 PM
Too late. Putin already did it. Numbnuts Obama is too stupid to see it, or just too scared to respond.
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