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Friday, June 20, 2008
Daily layoff tally - part II-
The original post was getting very long. So, time to start a new one.
Please post comments anytime a layoff happens in your department, whether it is 3161-related or not.
62 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Did you know, besides the ULM hired from the parents of LLNS, that they also had a deal to hire spouses too. So instead of the 35 they told us about, there are about 80 hired in. So, how many career employees go because of high paid ULM and their spouses?
There are 44 parent company transfers total (including the "key personnel" listed in the contract). The 44 include a few spouses (8?)that were hired. The spouses were required to apply for available vacancies and had to qualify based on knowledge, education and experience. They were hired in October and early November, while vacancies existed and George was still saying "no need for reductions."
Don't kid yourself. The spouses were "forced" on our organizations. Let's see if the Lab will provide statistics on how many spouses were excluded from the layoff or otherwise survived the seniority criterion.
Maybe one of the key personnel, who is no longer in that job, will be sent home with the spouse.
As soon as these layoffs are over, there is a plan to bring in more from the parent companies. To avoid "backfilling" issues, ULM will create new positions needed to make the lab faster, better, cheaper.
Got a job, be glad. Unemployment rate 11.3% NOt 5% like some people think.
Unemployment, poor economy have quality applicants accepting lower-paying positions By CHRISTINA SALERNO csalerno@modbee.com
last updated: May 11, 2008 04:39:53 AM
With soaring gas prices and unemployment on the rise, labor experts say they are seeing a different type of labor pool emerge: one that's highly-qualified, competitive and willing to take a pay cut from what they were previously earning.
It's a mix of commuters who no longer want to pay high prices at the pump to work in the Bay Area, experts say, along with an influx of recently laid off workers. Many of those job candidates have long r?um? that include experience in the mortgage, title, construction or related industries.
The U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, the fourth consecutive month of decline, according to recently released figures from the Department of Labor. In the Northern San Joaquin Valley, job cuts have been concentrated largely in industries closely tied to the housing market.
Meanwhile, gas prices jumped to a national record Friday of $3.67 a gallon, and they're much higher locally.
Even for people with degrees or plenty of experience, the valley's job market is extremely competitive now, said Darlamae Shannon, branch manager of staffing firm Manpower in Modesto.
She said about 90 percent of the clients who come to Manpower in search of work are people who live in Stanislaus County but are commuting to the Bay Area for work. They have decided that it is too expensive to continue commuting, she said, and most are willing to accept jobs that pay much less.
"The difference in pay scale is fine because they justify it with the cost of fuel. It is a period of time for reflection, and they are looking at what is important in their lives," Shannon said.
Workers who have been laid off recently are in a similar situation.
The unemployment rate in Stanislaus County has been climbing since the beginning of the year. In March, it rose to the highest figure the county has recorded in five years, hitting 11.3 percent, according to the state Employment Development Department.
"In general, we're noticing that there's a lot more people in the market looking for work, especially people with experience in title and mortgage companies because of the layoffs in those industries," said Nahrin Jacobs, division director of OfficeTeam in Modesto, a division of Robert Half International.
At the same time, many companies are tightening their belts to cope with the economic downturn and jobs have become increasingly scarce. Rather than hire full-time workers, a number of employers are adding temporary staff to fill empty positions or "project help" for specific undertakings, Jacobs said.
"Even though the company has let people go, they're still looking for interim help for when they get busy," she said. "Then there's special projects. Our area has a lot of agriculture and manufacturing companies. Their peak season is around the corner, and they still need workers."
Some find landing job nearly impossible
Some job seekers have found the employment crunch makes it nearly impossible to find work.
Tim Wylie says he's given up searching because of the current job market, but he still holds onto a "pipe dream" of working closer to his family -- even if it is for a job for which he's overqualified.
Wylie, 36, has worked in the semi-conductor industry in the Bay Area for more than a decade, commuting daily from Modesto. He's tried to find work in Stanislaus County, but has been repeatedly rejected for jobs that are below his current pay grade and skill level.
"I hate to say I'm overqualified, but there are definitely jobs I've applied for -- jobs to do stuff that I've done 10 years ago -- and I haven't gotten calls back," he said.
Those jobs include production work at canneries, manufacturing plants and other industrial sites. Part of the problem is that skills from the semi-conductor field don't always translate to employers in the valley's food processing industry, Wylie said.
The other issues is the sheer number of job candidates.
"For every job, there are 100 people who are trying to do the same thing," he said.
Although it can be frustrating for job seekers who are facing stiff competition for entry-level positions, it can be a boon for employers who can afford to take advantage of the job market.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for those who are prepared for it. This is a growth time. We're not talking about cutbacks, we're talking about expanding business. And you need people to expand your business," said Norm Porges, chief executive officer of Prime Shine Car Wash.
He said he's added a number of highly qualified employees to his staff of about 100, including supervisors and managers.
"We see people who, unfortunately, lost their jobs through layoffs or cutbacks," he said. "All of a sudden, that enriches the work pool."
Porges said businesses can ensure that their high-quality employees won't walk out the door when the economy improves by creating an excellent work environment.
"We market to our employees just as we do to our customers," he said. Employees receive annual statements that show how much they earned, he said, plus all their fringe benefits, such as health insurance, cell phone service or gym memberships.
On the flip side, job seekers need to convince potential employers that they want to stick around for the long haul, Jacobs said.
She recommends that people let employers know they are willing to work hard, even on a temporary basis, to prove that they will be a good fit for the company.
"People have to be competitive, confident with their skills and continue to search," Jacobs said. "They should be assertive, constantly meeting with people and companies, and eventually they will get employers to give them an opportunity."
Bee staff writer Christina Salerno can be reached at csalerno@modbee.com or 238-4574.
Poster 8:05 AM has it right. The game plan is to get rid of lots of the current staff and then replace these workers with lower costs employees from the LLC corporate partners, primarily from Rechtel.
Guess what, folks? You've just been Rechtel-ized. How does it feel?
Oh, and about that TCP1 pension? Plan on the Bechtel Boys getting into the finance operations and freezing that sucker out in the next year or so along with the shutdown of retirement medical. All of this is what NNSA wants to see happen. They just forgot to tell you about it during the pre-LLC town hall meetings.
You are absolutely correct. Before Oct. 1, any hire that LLNS wanted, LLNS got. They had their own abbreviated hire form and they set the salary. Hire packages went directly to LLNS and LLNS made the hire offers. LLNL’s HR department was not in the loop. In my area, we were “forced” (told) to hire a spouse of a LLNS employee even though we had interviewed better qualified candidates. We suggested a start salary, but LLNS offered more. This was found out after the spouse began. LLNS never mentioned this to us. Also, we were told to pay the spouse for transit time.
Yes, LLNS spouses were excluded from VSSOP, as was everyone who had less than one year of service.
May 12, 2008 2:27 PM You have an interesting perspective. Unfortunately it doesn't include the fact that George Miller required that he personally approve all partnership hires and that he required that the numbers be kept low.
Today, Monday, May 19th, 9 members of SPSE-UPTE's skilled trades bargaining unit were laid off: four carpenters, three painters and two sheet metal workers.
SPSE was notified of the pending layoffs mid-morning, and initial indications are that members were notified shortly thereafter and, the few present on site, were gone by noon.
SPSE-UPTE has the right to bargain conditions of a layoff, including who is dismissed. A few minutes notice by LLNS days before the publicly announced layoff date is not good faith bargaining. What will SPSE-UPTE do now?
I was one of those who were laid off "unofficially" on monday. I guess I could say the best thing about it is I don't have to worry anymore, its over and done. What really got to me was the fact that I was told not to come in and get my personal belongings, Pictures etc. as someone would gather them for me. That was just wrong, but I can see their side of it.But I would have happily come in under escort and said goodbye to my friends and gather my things if the option would have been presented to me. I put alot of effort into this job, trying to get things done more effectively and efficiently which has always paid off for me when I worked on the outside, hence the fact that on the outside I have never been laid off in 20 years of working. But let me tell you, here it doesn't matter what you know, what other training you have, as long as you have seniority in skilled crafts you will stay no matter how ineffective or narrow your training is.Lab management is totally blind to what the real need is here and the value of these younger employees that were let go. Oh well the best and the brightest? what a joke. Oh yes one last thing, thanks UPTE for nothing.
I can provide a partial report on what SPSE-UPTE is planning to do for those members laid off. Look for more later in official press releases.
First, SPSE-UPTE is joining those who suggested that everyone wear black on Thursday. Black shirts, even black pants, are all too appropriate. Second, SPSE-UPTE members have informally agreed to join the impromptu show of support, first suggested on this blog, for those laid off on Vasco Road near the West Gate between 12 and 12:30 on BLACK Thursday, May 22nd. This will demonstrate support for those paying the price of privatization and management miscues to the community - and the press. Third, look for press announcements from SPSE-UPTE about more substantial actions to be taken, which could eventually (NOT SOON, unfortunately) have substantial benefits for unit members laid off without LLNS first bargaining the conditions of their layoff with SPSE-UPTE.
I hope to see anyone and everyone at 12:00 on Black Thursday on Vasco in front of the West Gate. At least if you are there on your lunch hour, you won't be in your office to receive the boot! Rumor has it that at least one Directorates are requiring 200s, and maybe 300s, to be in their offices Thursday between 10 and 2 -through the lunch hour! The term barbaric does come to mind.
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 15:17:18 -0700 To: E-line From: Public Affairs Office Subject: A message to Lab employees from Director George Miller Sender: listmaster@llnl.gov
E-LINE: A message to Lab employees from Director George Miller
On Thursday and Friday, we will say goodbye to approximately 440 of our career indefinite colleagues as part of Phase 3 of our Workforce Restructuring Plan. It will be a difficult two days and I encourage everyone to provide support to fellow employees. Dedicated employees will be leaving the Laboratory and I want to extend my thanks to them for their contributions.
If you recall, we originally estimated that up to 535 career indefinite separations (combined with 215 VSSOP departures) would be necessary in order to reach our workforce restructuring goal of 750 separations and to position our Laboratory effectively for the future. After a thorough evaluation of our workforce, attrition and scheduled end of assignments in our flexible workforce, we've decided that we can achieve our workforce restructuring goals by releasing approximately 440 career indefinite employees and up to 100 additional employees from our flexible workforce.
To prepare for this, Strategic Human Capital Management will be re-issuing a WARN Act letter to approximately 500 flex-term employees in affected work groups. It will be mailed out from the Laboratory later today and it will provide 60 days of "notice" to potentially affected employees, with departures of these flex-term employees slated to begin June 26, 2008.
It is my intent that with these final workforce actions, the ISP release this week, along with as many as 100 flex-term reductions in late June, we will be in a position to manage our Laboratory in the stable fashion that has occurred in the past. These actions will conclude the involuntary phase of our 3161 Workforce Restructuring Plan and I do not believe, given the information I have now on our budget situation for FY08 and what we might expect for FY09, that future involuntary separations will be necessary.
I know this is a difficult time. We have tried to provide as much support as possible to our employees who will be leaving the Laboratory. The HR Resource Center (Bldg. 41) will open Tuesday, May 27, to provide services and support to employees who have been given a layoff notice. One-on-one counseling appointments to discuss benefits, retirement and payroll considerations will be available as well as outplacement support and training. A job fair has been planned for June 19 for ISP-selected employees and flex-term employees who will receive the WARN Act notice. The Resource Center also has more than 1,100 job postings, including opportunities with our parent companies, in an updated job bank.
It is a time of change and challenge. It is crucial that we pay attention to the Laboratory's day-to-day operations and to ensuring that all work is done safely and securely. Thank you for your patience during this time and for all you do for our Laboratory and the nation.
Regards, George H. Miller
________________________________________________ E-line reaches more than 11,000 addresses. Please share this information with your colleagues who are not online.
A fatal mistake being made is the idea that one can create management levels to bring in new funding. This pits these managers against those scientist and engineers at the lower levels that actually have the ideas that could lead to new programs.
Instead, the managment structure needs to be changed so that upper managers are responsible for developing and selling the ideas from the rank and file. This would be just good management sense.
Right now managers assigned to get new funding feel threatened by those whose ideas they should be selling.
But the upper management don't get this. Their idea of fixing things is to create more management layers.
The RIF criterion for 200s is supposed to be SKAs right; guess what? several people with valuable skills (ones that are hard to replace) such as programming and project management skills were RIFed today. SKAs? yeah right!
I know a few people who got let go today. One from H-Division, One from NIF, Five from procurement, One FPOC, Three from TRED 321 complex. I'm sure there are many I have not heard about yet. What idiots we have in LLNS. It's as sonmeone said. "We now have the fox watching the hen house." Sounds like a new topic to me.
Unfortunately, layoffs are usually about WHO you know, and not WHAT you know. Don't be a fool for the false stories that management tell their employees regarding how fairly their layoff process will be implemented. It's all BS.
I watched very skilled techs that were fully funded get shown the door. The distraction was so great most of the scientist went home early. I have yet to see a single change in management.
Rechtel and ULM did not cut any management in our area ! we are so top heavy that i bet are labor rates jump for the 5th time this year; pass $ 200 hour; Rechtel is probly setting us up for outsourcing!!!!!
A lot of the people RIFed today, including myself had 20+ years at the lab. These individuals were not dead weight ,but dedicated workers. In my work group we had four people, one retired in February,one took the VVSOP,and I got the boot today.You can't operate a group with one person. Or is their time also limited.Seems very much like age discrimination.
A very bright lady was released in the Business Ops directorate. A solid developer! The kind Google, HP and the like would hire in an instant. Who made the decision? Who decided to throw away such valuable talent. Talent like that comes to an organization once a decade. Dies Management care?
I heard a rumor that management, in preparation for the layoffs, instructed everyone at risk to pack up their personal stuff in their offices prior to today, make sure that all their work due (and resources for completing it) for the next few months was well described, prepared, and easily available for those who would replace them, and to bring in all their Lab owned equipment from home, just in case they were selected. Apparently this was to make things easier for EVERYONE given the necessary, but regrettable downsizing.
Here is my translation: "In preparation for your exile to Devil's Island tomorrow, please make sure you have your cell cleaned out and have told us where you buried the money from the bank job. It will be very important for us, after you are sent off, to dig up the money right away without having to look for it. You, of course will be living on a disease-infested desert island, eating bugs. But you wouldn't want us, the people who are ending it for you and are sending you there, to be inconvenienced, would you? C'mon, let's all be reasonable. Don't be a selfish and bitter jerk; don't you know how hard this change and transition is FOR US? Change is so hard, so difficult (of course, some change is more difficult than others, depending on your perspective. Like your change, getting a one-way ticket to hell-on-earth, may seem a little more difficult to you than our change, having to struggle on without you, but please try to see our tragic side of it). Just because we're getting rid of you, and will still be here living large after you are gone, isn't any reason not to make the future easy for us. And, oh by the way, please make sure that you make arrangements to return all the tools we loaned you to use when robbing the bank on our behalf. We don't want to look for those either. You are a goner, so good-bye sucker."
The layoff decisions were generally made by division leaders and above. Many good people went out the gate because the decision makers really didn't know what they did.
Since NIF and the weapons program are in failure mode, the "powers that be" are terminating scientists on WFO projects. Virtually all of the scientists let go today were laid-off from fully-funded assignments, as has been pointed out by others, they were the "worker bees"- I don't know of layoffs of any managers. Absolutely horrible business sense, unless you are running those failing organizations, and want to illegally siphon off the WFO money. Clearly NIF and WCI are scared that the mission of the lab could be redirected, and want to make it impossible for LLNL to ever redefine itself as anything other than NIF and nuclear weapons. They also need to find money to steal to support their bloated and ineffective staff. What will probably transpire instead, is a complete collapse and shut-dowon of LLNL when NIF is ultimately cancelled, and the weapons program is consolidated at LANL.
NIF is slowly running out of money. Matrixed employees sent back to programs, some were laid off already and some tomorrow. What to do with the business/admin end of NIF...send them back to procurement to "back fill" employees laid off today. It doesn't make sense. Does anyone in ULM know what they are doing or is FR and ED calling the shots (no pun intended).
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory handed out pink slips to 330 employees on Thursday and plans to lay off 110 engineers and scientists with more than 10 years of service Friday.
About 100 temporary workers will be out next month.
A spokeswoman said the layoffs were the first "involuntary separations" of permanent employees in 35 years, and were the result of a budget shortfall and higher expenses related to the lab's transition to new management by private firms.
Since October 2006, the nuclear weapons research lab's workforce has shrunk through a combination of attrition, retirements, buyouts and layoffs from 8,800 employees to about 6,800.
But spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the lab's chief mission - to design, test and upgrade the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile - is not at risk.
Among the lab's missions is the design and development of "reliable replacement warheads" for the Navy - without underground testing. Much of that work is accomplished through predictive simulations on supercomputers at the Lawrence Livermore lab.
The lab, in operation since 1952, is also reviewing the safety, security and reliability of other nuclear weapons including the W62 and W87 intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, the B83 strategic bomb, and the W80 and W84 cruise missile warheads.
"I know this is a difficult time," lab Director George Miller said Wednesday in an e-mail to workers. "We have tried to provide as much support as possible to our employees who will be leaving the laboratory."
Earlier this year, about 500 temporary and contract workers, including employees on some of the lab's long-term projects, were let go as part of the lab's "workplace restructuring."
Separately, 215 laboratory workers, including scientists, engineers, technicians, financial analysts, procurement specialists and administrative support personnel, chose to leave the lab in March in exchange for severance packages in which they were awarded one week of extra pay for every year of service.
Among the employees laid off this week are chemists, biologists and environmental engineers.
"Some of these employees have worked here a very long time," said Houghton, adding that the lab does not anticipate further layoffs later this year. "We appreciate their service, and know it's hard."
She said that some employees in the lab's Weapons and Complex Integration section, which designs, assesses and certifies the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, were let go. But, she added, "They are not employees who have critical skills."
A job resource center has been established to help laid-off employees with assistance on resume writing and benefits counseling.
Houghton said the layoffs were needed to cover a budget gap of $280 million - $100 million of which resulted from decreased funding by Congress, and the rest tied to higher-than-expected costs for the lab's transition from being managed solely by the University of California to a new management consortium led by San Francisco's Bechtel National Inc.
The lab must pay higher health care costs for employees under the new management structure and taxes that were not owed when the facility was run by the state.
"It is a time of change and challenge," Miller said. "It is crucial that we pay attention to the laboratory's day-to-day operations and to ensuring that all work is done safely and securely."
Since October, the lab - a square-mile site owned by the U.S. Department of Energy - has been run by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, which includes Bechtel and the University of California, along with BWX Technologies Inc., Washington Group International and Battelle.
"With the help of our corporate parents, we have already identified operational efficiencies and savings that we're implementing at the laboratory," Houghton said.
More than $1 billion of the lab's $1.6 billion budget is devoted to its nuclear weapons programs.
Houghton said that no programs have been eliminated or altered significantly as a result of the downsizing, but some lab operations have been consolidated.
"We are a national security laboratory, so we are going to work very hard to retain the national security skills to fulfill our mission," Houghton said. "Like any good business, we're going to set our goals and reorganize based on where we believe future work will be coming from and how we can deliver our goods and services in the most efficient manner.
"It was a very hard decision, but one that was necessary to position us for the future," she said.
SH must have trained the black widow or visa versa. This looks like the same BS that was handed to the poor people that got sucked into TCP-1 and now she sucking the press into believing the same tom of BS the black widow handed us over a year ago. If Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com is smart he'll filter this PAO BS out and interview those who were shit canned. There'll you'll get some facts.
To: Computation From: Dona Crawford Date: May 23, 2008
The last couple of weeks, and in particular these last two days, have been particularly stressful. No matter where we sit in the organization, we are each affected in our own way. Dealing with our emotions will take some time, weeks or even months. Please be kind to yourself and look out for one another as we process what's happened and try to move forward.
The e-line announcement from George Miller this week mentioned the Lab would be releasing approximately 440 indefinite career employees and up to 100 additional employees from our flexible workforce. It is important that you know, whether you get a WARN notice or not, no flexible workforce employees in Computation will be released during this next round of layoffs. Computation has lost 21 FX employees through resignation or early end of appointment. Twenty-two people took the VSSOP and we released 71 people in the involuntary separation. We have lost additional people through attrition, such that our total losses are 153, or more than 15% of our workforce since the start of the FY. We are at a point now where getting requested programmatic work done will be challenging.
I know there continues to be nervousness in the system, and here again, it will take some time for that to dissipate. I've seen the solid budget projections for next year, along with the new rates resulting from our dramatic workforce cut backs and non-labor cost reductions. The Lab is close to achieving its goal of making the cost of an FTE equal to what it was in FY07. This will make us competitive and allow us to bring in new work. There is no shortage of pressing important national security problems and great science for us to work on together. For those of us who remain, I believe we need to steward the Lab and ensure its future is in keeping with the principles and values that brought us here.
Thank you for your dedication and continued hard work through these trying times. I have full confidence we will be successful together.
I have not posted here in quite a while. I have been involved in making novel high efficiency engines, in making new devices that learn from their environment, and in finishing a CD of images of Los Alamos through time.
My multi-year successes in finding jobs for LLNL and LANL staff who are laid off was put on the shelf until now.
If you would like to know whether this expertise might be useful to you, contact me (eric.fairfield@gmail.com).
I suspect they will keep enough of you for the classified stuff until its all gone and then Geek Squad will take over the rest of your duties. Desktop support has the most to worry about. It can be out-sourced immediately just like procurement is going to be. That will probably go through India or the Philippines.
may 25th 3:46PM Dona could do her part in saving the Lab by cutting anyone with "deputy" or assistant in their title. Add it all up and see the balance tip!
Eric, Let's here about your "multi-year" successes in finding jobs for LANL and LLNL laid off employees, since this is a relatively new phenomenon for both labs.
There is no doubt that some good people left last week. The fact that LLNS mismanaged Lab costs needs to be addressed in award fee and other means by DOE.
On the other hand, a number of people who left last week should have been given the boot years ago. The UC layoff policies are fine for skilled crafts, but not for technical personnel. We need new policies that will allow us to trim the dead or unneeded wood so that the best can survive.
"...I have yet to hear a clearly articulated mission for the lab..."
Domenici and Feinstein (reluctantly) get it, Bonyer is learning, O'bama is avoiding the hard truth.
I'm with Feinstien on this one. It's truly time to change the mission away from weapons and put the funds where they are needed. No one at LLNL except for old ULM wants to hear that LLNL mission is still to be weapons of any sort. Energy independence is far more important at this time.
Nope, like renewable energy and alternative energy. Anything except oil, coal, or piss poor constructed nuclear power plants build on fault lines or in a state that has a lot of quakes. I'd prefer they be afloat many miles off shore.
"...Nope, like renewable energy and alternative energy.."
OK Peter Pan, time for bed. But when you wake up from your Neverland dream, your mommy will need a real energy source to cook your breakfast.
So please name the renewable that works or will work soon in sufficient capacity that LLNL's specific talent can help. Fusion? Breeder reactors? Duck shit?
If you cared to think clearly, what you are stating is: take funds away from nuclear weapons sceince support because the renewable energy "idea" that is not funded sufficiently is better for US citizens than a marginally supported nuclear stockpile.
I don't buy it. Of the 2-3Trillion dollars the US government spends each year, taking $250M-$500M from weapons science (while maintaining the lie that it has no effect on performance)and putting it to "another" risky hairbrained "renewable' fantasy is not a good idea.
You can do nothing and die at the hands of those who hold the crude or you can do something and utilize the free resourses we have and live. It's your call. Nuke and weapons are not the answer. With people like you at the helm we are all doomed because of your foolishness and misappropriation of funds.
It's a weapons Lab and always has been. And will remain so until it ceases to exist! Let's face it this RIF would of happened long ago if it hadn't been for NIF! Remember when we stopped testing we were going to become the Green Lab, then CRADA's were going to save the day until outside industry found out how freaking expensive we were even back then! Even though they weren't paying our costs we couldn't deliver enough to keep their interest! We can't solve the energy crises because we cost too much. UC created this top heavy bloated giant because management was where the money was. They created new positions to pull their buddies up into the ranks. And now it's so engrained into Lab culture that even the new management team doesn't know how to down size it. Or more like they don't care to because their only here for 7 years!
"We can't solve the energy crises because we cost too much."
Exactly and that's why the lab should be shut down. Weapons work isn't needed any more and they can't seem to come up with anything new that's of national importance. Most of what they do in HLS can be done elsewhere cheaper and we surely don't need bio-weapons. So what does that leave LLNL to do? Gee--- nada ? I am now to the point to where I agree with funding being diverted to other renewable energy project but only if the are executive orders that mandate change and implementation in five year. If there's no backbone to the order and willingness to succeed in a timely fashion then they become just another sink hole. The good old USA can't afford not to act quickly or she'll be gone at the mercy of your middle eastern enemies.
Factually wrong. As long as there is a US nuclear weapons stockpile, sensible taxpayers will require weapons science to maintain it. Without weapons science we will not have a stockpile.
This isn't cooking class
Get your thinking straight, so you can present sensible arguments.
The decision that your side needs to encourage is to eliminate the US nuclear stockpile; then the labs aren't needed. The contrary is not true.
Of course, as you know, unilateral US nuclear disarmament is a silly idea.
Form Factor (Livermore, CA) is looking for experienced folks in the areas of mechanical, chemical, materials, and electrical engineering. Work experience in microelectronics and/or MEMS would be advantageous, but not required. Follow the embedded link for more info.
The original post was getting very long. So, time to start a new one.
62 comments:
Did you know, besides the ULM hired from the parents of LLNS, that they also had a deal to hire spouses too. So instead of the 35 they told us about, there are about 80 hired in. So, how many career employees go because of high paid ULM and their spouses?
So are you sayin most of the ULM are Polygamists? How do 35 plus 35 equal 80?
"How do 35 plus 35 equal 80?"
You forgot to add in some of their grown kids, 5:16 PM.
There are 44 parent company transfers total (including the "key personnel" listed in the contract). The 44 include a few spouses (8?)that were hired. The spouses were required to apply for available vacancies and had to qualify based on knowledge, education and experience. They were hired in October and early November, while vacancies existed and George was still saying "no need for reductions."
May 8, 2008 9:46 PM
Don't kid yourself. The spouses were "forced" on our organizations. Let's see if the Lab will provide statistics on how many spouses were excluded from the layoff or otherwise survived the seniority criterion.
Maybe one of the key personnel, who is no longer in that job, will be sent home with the spouse.
As soon as these layoffs are over, there is a plan to bring in more from the parent companies. To avoid "backfilling" issues, ULM will create new positions needed to make the lab faster, better, cheaper.
Got a job, be glad. Unemployment rate 11.3% NOt 5% like some people think.
Unemployment, poor economy have quality applicants accepting lower-paying positions
By CHRISTINA SALERNO
csalerno@modbee.com
last updated: May 11, 2008 04:39:53 AM
With soaring gas prices and unemployment on the rise, labor experts say they are seeing a different type of labor pool emerge: one that's highly-qualified, competitive and willing to take a pay cut from what they were previously earning.
It's a mix of commuters who no longer want to pay high prices at the pump to work in the Bay Area, experts say, along with an influx of recently laid off workers. Many of those job candidates have long r?um? that include experience in the mortgage, title, construction or related industries.
The U.S. economy lost 20,000 jobs in April, the fourth consecutive month of decline, according to recently released figures from the Department of Labor. In the Northern San Joaquin Valley, job cuts have been concentrated largely in industries closely tied to the housing market.
Meanwhile, gas prices jumped to a national record Friday of $3.67 a gallon, and they're much higher locally.
Even for people with degrees or plenty of experience, the valley's job market is extremely competitive now, said Darlamae Shannon, branch manager of staffing firm Manpower in Modesto.
She said about 90 percent of the clients who come to Manpower in search of work are people who live in Stanislaus County but are commuting to the Bay Area for work. They have decided that it is too expensive to continue commuting, she said, and most are willing to accept jobs that pay much less.
"The difference in pay scale is fine because they justify it with the cost of fuel. It is a period of time for reflection, and they are looking at what is important in their lives," Shannon said.
Workers who have been laid off recently are in a similar situation.
The unemployment rate in Stanislaus County has been climbing since the beginning of the year. In March, it rose to the highest figure the county has recorded in five years, hitting 11.3 percent, according to the state Employment Development Department.
"In general, we're noticing that there's a lot more people in the market looking for work, especially people with experience in title and mortgage companies because of the layoffs in those industries," said Nahrin Jacobs, division director of OfficeTeam in Modesto, a division of Robert Half International.
At the same time, many companies are tightening their belts to cope with the economic downturn and jobs have become increasingly scarce. Rather than hire full-time workers, a number of employers are adding temporary staff to fill empty positions or "project help" for specific undertakings, Jacobs said.
"Even though the company has let people go, they're still looking for interim help for when they get busy," she said. "Then there's special projects. Our area has a lot of agriculture and manufacturing companies. Their peak season is around the corner, and they still need workers."
Some find landing job nearly impossible
Some job seekers have found the employment crunch makes it nearly impossible to find work.
Tim Wylie says he's given up searching because of the current job market, but he still holds onto a "pipe dream" of working closer to his family -- even if it is for a job for which he's overqualified.
Wylie, 36, has worked in the semi-conductor industry in the Bay Area for more than a decade, commuting daily from Modesto. He's tried to find work in Stanislaus County, but has been repeatedly rejected for jobs that are below his current pay grade and skill level.
"I hate to say I'm overqualified, but there are definitely jobs I've applied for -- jobs to do stuff that I've done 10 years ago -- and I haven't gotten calls back," he said.
Those jobs include production work at canneries, manufacturing plants and other industrial sites. Part of the problem is that skills from the semi-conductor field don't always translate to employers in the valley's food processing industry, Wylie said.
The other issues is the sheer number of job candidates.
"For every job, there are 100 people who are trying to do the same thing," he said.
Although it can be frustrating for job seekers who are facing stiff competition for entry-level positions, it can be a boon for employers who can afford to take advantage of the job market.
"This is a tremendous opportunity for those who are prepared for it. This is a growth time. We're not talking about cutbacks, we're talking about expanding business. And you need people to expand your business," said Norm Porges, chief executive officer of Prime Shine Car Wash.
He said he's added a number of highly qualified employees to his staff of about 100, including supervisors and managers.
"We see people who, unfortunately, lost their jobs through layoffs or cutbacks," he said. "All of a sudden, that enriches the work pool."
Porges said businesses can ensure that their high-quality employees won't walk out the door when the economy improves by creating an excellent work environment.
"We market to our employees just as we do to our customers," he said. Employees receive annual statements that show how much they earned, he said, plus all their fringe benefits, such as health insurance, cell phone service or gym memberships.
On the flip side, job seekers need to convince potential employers that they want to stick around for the long haul, Jacobs said.
She recommends that people let employers know they are willing to work hard, even on a temporary basis, to prove that they will be a good fit for the company.
"People have to be competitive, confident with their skills and continue to search," Jacobs said. "They should be assertive, constantly meeting with people and companies, and eventually they will get employers to give them an opportunity."
Bee staff writer Christina Salerno can be reached at csalerno@modbee.com or 238-4574.
Poster 8:05 AM has it right. The game plan is to get rid of lots of the current staff and then replace these workers with lower costs employees from the LLC corporate partners, primarily from Rechtel.
Guess what, folks? You've just been Rechtel-ized. How does it feel?
Oh, and about that TCP1 pension? Plan on the Bechtel Boys getting into the finance operations and freezing that sucker out in the next year or so along with the shutdown of retirement medical. All of this is what NNSA wants to see happen. They just forgot to tell you about it during the pre-LLC town hall meetings.
May 10, 2008 6:24 PM
You are absolutely correct. Before Oct. 1, any hire that LLNS wanted, LLNS got. They had their own abbreviated hire form and they set the salary. Hire packages went directly to LLNS and LLNS made the hire offers. LLNL’s HR department was not in the loop. In my area, we were “forced” (told) to hire a spouse of a LLNS employee even though we had interviewed better qualified candidates. We suggested a start salary, but LLNS offered more. This was found out after the spouse began. LLNS never mentioned this to us. Also, we were told to pay the spouse for transit time.
Yes, LLNS spouses were excluded from VSSOP, as was everyone who had less than one year of service.
May 12, 2008 2:27 PM
You have an interesting perspective. Unfortunately it doesn't include the fact that George Miller required that he personally approve all partnership hires and that he required that the numbers be kept low.
This is so GM!
May 12, 2008 2:27 PM
They were not eligible to get the money for VSSOP but they are not excluded from the ISP.
Today, Monday, May 19th, 9 members of SPSE-UPTE's skilled trades bargaining unit were laid off: four carpenters, three painters and two sheet metal workers.
SPSE was notified of the pending layoffs mid-morning, and initial indications are that members were notified shortly thereafter and, the few present on site, were gone by noon.
SPSE-UPTE has the right to bargain conditions of a layoff, including who is dismissed. A few minutes notice by LLNS days before the publicly announced layoff date is not good faith bargaining. What will SPSE-UPTE do now?
What will SPSE-UPTE do now?
What they always do, nothing.
It looks like it has already started before the 22nd. LLNS are liars
I was one of those who were laid off "unofficially" on monday.
I guess I could say the best thing about it is I don't have to worry anymore, its over and done. What really got to me was the fact that I was told not to come in and get my personal belongings, Pictures etc. as someone would gather them for me. That was just wrong, but I can see their side of it.But I would have happily come in under escort and said goodbye to my friends and gather my things if the option would have been presented to me. I put alot of effort into this job, trying to get things done more effectively and efficiently which has always paid off for me when I worked on the outside, hence the fact that on the outside I have never been laid off in 20 years of working. But let me tell you, here it doesn't matter what you know, what other training you have, as long as you have seniority in skilled crafts you will stay no matter how ineffective or narrow your training is.Lab management is totally blind to what the real need is here and the value of these younger employees that were let go. Oh well the best and the brightest? what a joke. Oh yes one last thing, thanks UPTE for nothing.
I can provide a partial report on what SPSE-UPTE is planning to do for those members laid off. Look for more later in official press releases.
First, SPSE-UPTE is joining those who suggested that everyone wear black on Thursday. Black shirts, even black pants, are all too appropriate. Second, SPSE-UPTE members have informally agreed to join the impromptu show of support, first suggested on this blog, for those laid off on Vasco Road near the West Gate between 12 and 12:30 on BLACK Thursday, May 22nd. This will demonstrate support for those paying the price of privatization and management miscues to the community - and the press. Third, look for press announcements from SPSE-UPTE about more substantial actions to be taken, which could eventually (NOT SOON, unfortunately) have substantial benefits for unit members laid off without LLNS first bargaining the conditions of their layoff with SPSE-UPTE.
I hope to see anyone and everyone at 12:00 on Black Thursday on Vasco in front of the West Gate. At least if you are there on your lunch hour, you won't be in your office to receive the boot! Rumor has it that at least one Directorates are requiring 200s, and maybe 300s, to be in their offices Thursday between 10 and 2 -through the lunch hour! The term barbaric does come to mind.
Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 15:17:18 -0700
To: E-line
From: Public Affairs Office
Subject: A message to Lab employees from Director George Miller
Sender: listmaster@llnl.gov
E-LINE: A message to Lab employees from Director George Miller
On Thursday and Friday, we will say goodbye to approximately 440 of our career indefinite colleagues as part of Phase 3 of our Workforce Restructuring Plan. It will be a difficult two days and I encourage everyone to provide support to fellow employees. Dedicated employees will be leaving the Laboratory and I want to extend my thanks to them for their contributions.
If you recall, we originally estimated that up to 535 career indefinite separations (combined with 215 VSSOP departures) would be necessary in order to reach our workforce restructuring goal of 750 separations and to position our Laboratory effectively for the future. After a thorough evaluation of our workforce, attrition and scheduled end of assignments in our flexible workforce, we've decided that we can achieve our workforce restructuring goals by releasing approximately 440 career indefinite employees and up to 100 additional employees from our flexible workforce.
To prepare for this, Strategic Human Capital Management will be re-issuing a WARN Act letter to approximately 500 flex-term employees in affected work groups. It will be mailed out from the Laboratory later today and it will provide 60 days of "notice" to potentially affected employees, with departures of these flex-term employees slated to begin June 26, 2008.
It is my intent that with these final workforce actions, the ISP release this week, along with as many as 100 flex-term reductions in late June, we will be in a position to manage our Laboratory in the stable fashion that has occurred in the past. These actions will conclude the involuntary phase of our 3161 Workforce Restructuring Plan and I do not believe, given the information I have now on our budget situation for FY08 and what we might expect for FY09, that future involuntary separations will be necessary.
I know this is a difficult time. We have tried to provide as much support as possible to our employees who will be leaving the Laboratory. The HR Resource Center (Bldg. 41) will open Tuesday, May 27, to provide services and support to employees who have been given a layoff notice. One-on-one counseling appointments to discuss benefits, retirement and payroll considerations will be available as well as outplacement support and training. A job fair has been planned for June 19 for ISP-selected employees and flex-term employees who will receive the WARN Act notice. The Resource Center also has more than 1,100 job postings, including opportunities with our parent companies, in an updated job bank.
It is a time of change and challenge. It is crucial that we pay attention to the Laboratory's day-to-day operations and to ensuring that all work is done safely and securely. Thank you for your patience during this time and for all you do for our Laboratory and the nation.
Regards,
George H. Miller
________________________________________________
E-line reaches more than 11,000 addresses. Please share this information with your colleagues who are not online.
What a coincidence this notice of "no lay-off's" for awhile comes a few days after NNSA'a "A" was in town. Sounds a little fishy to me.
"...Lab management is totally blind to what the real need is here ..."
No they aren't. They are incompetent. They understand the need but can't fix the problem.
Incompetent
A fatal mistake being made is the idea that one can create management levels to bring in new funding. This pits these managers against those scientist and engineers at the lower levels that actually have the ideas that could lead to new programs.
Instead, the managment structure needs to be changed so that upper managers are responsible for developing and selling the ideas from the rank and file. This would be just good management sense.
Right now managers assigned to get new funding feel threatened by those whose ideas they should be selling.
But the upper management don't get this. Their idea of fixing things is to create more management layers.
The RIF criterion for 200s is supposed to be SKAs right; guess what? several people with valuable skills (ones that are hard to replace) such as programming and project management skills were RIFed today.
SKAs? yeah right!
25 people (Computer Techs) were let got from CSS (Comp) today, the ones I knew were very good folks, not dead weight.
I know a few people who got let go today. One from H-Division, One from NIF, Five from procurement, One FPOC, Three from TRED 321 complex. I'm sure there are many I have not heard about yet. What idiots we have in LLNS. It's as sonmeone said. "We now have the fox watching the hen house." Sounds like a new topic to me.
Unfortunately, layoffs are usually about WHO you know, and not WHAT you know. Don't be a fool for the false stories that management tell their employees regarding how fairly their layoff process will be implemented. It's all BS.
Here's a good article about how it really works:
How to Make Your Job Layoff Resistant - MSNBC
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24669240/
I watched very skilled techs that were fully funded get shown the door. The distraction was so great most of the scientist went home early. I have yet to see a single change in management.
Rechtel and ULM did not cut any management in our area ! we are so top heavy that i bet are labor rates jump for the 5th time this year; pass $ 200 hour; Rechtel is probly setting us up for outsourcing!!!!!
A lot of the people RIFed today, including myself had 20+ years at the lab. These individuals were not dead weight ,but dedicated workers. In my work group we had
four people, one retired in February,one took the VVSOP,and I got the boot today.You can't operate a group with one person.
Or is their time also limited.Seems very much like age discrimination.
A very bright lady was released in the Business Ops directorate. A solid developer! The kind Google, HP and the like would hire in an instant. Who made the decision? Who decided to throw away such valuable talent. Talent like that comes to an organization once a decade. Dies Management care?
I heard a rumor that management, in preparation for the layoffs, instructed everyone at risk to pack up their personal stuff in their offices prior to today, make sure that all their work due (and resources for completing it) for the next few months was well described, prepared, and easily available for those who would replace them, and to bring in all their Lab owned equipment from home, just in case they were selected. Apparently this was to make things easier for EVERYONE given the necessary, but regrettable downsizing.
Here is my translation: "In preparation for your exile to Devil's Island tomorrow, please make sure you have your cell cleaned out and have told us where you buried the money from the bank job. It will be very important for us, after you are sent off, to dig up the money right away without having to look for it. You, of course will be living on a disease-infested desert island, eating bugs. But you wouldn't want us, the people who are ending it for you and are sending you there, to be inconvenienced, would you? C'mon, let's all be reasonable. Don't be a selfish and bitter jerk; don't you know how hard this change and transition is FOR US? Change is so hard, so difficult (of course, some change is more difficult than others, depending on your perspective. Like your change, getting a one-way ticket to hell-on-earth, may seem a little more difficult to you than our change, having to struggle on without you, but please try to see our tragic side of it). Just because we're getting rid of you, and will still be here living large after you are gone, isn't any reason not to make the future easy for us. And, oh by the way, please make sure that you make arrangements to return all the tools we loaned you to use when robbing the bank on our behalf. We don't want to look for those either. You are a goner, so good-bye sucker."
The final count let go from procurement was 15.
LLNS will not publish the final layoff statistics. I know many, many folks let go today and not one was a supervisor, let alone a manager.
With 440 out the door, a substantial number of managers should have left.
The layoff decisions were generally made by division leaders and above. Many good people went out the gate because the decision makers really didn't know what they did.
Since NIF and the weapons program are in failure mode, the "powers that be" are terminating scientists on WFO projects. Virtually all of the scientists let go today were laid-off from fully-funded assignments, as has been pointed out by others, they were the "worker bees"- I don't know of layoffs of any managers. Absolutely horrible business sense, unless you are running those failing organizations, and want to illegally siphon off the WFO money. Clearly NIF and WCI are scared that the mission of the lab could be redirected, and want to make it impossible for LLNL to ever redefine itself as anything other than NIF and nuclear weapons. They also need to find money to steal to support their bloated and ineffective staff. What will probably transpire instead, is a complete collapse and shut-dowon of LLNL when NIF is ultimately cancelled, and the weapons program is consolidated at LANL.
NIF is slowly running out of money. Matrixed employees sent back to programs, some were laid off already and some tomorrow. What to do with the business/admin end of NIF...send them back to procurement to "back fill" employees laid off today. It doesn't make sense. Does anyone in ULM know what they are doing or is FR and ED calling the shots (no pun intended).
5/23 Chronicle LLNS news article
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/22/BAD810ROP2.DTL
I think they made an error in reference to October 2006 - should be October 2007 since Bechtel took over.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory handed out pink slips to 330 employees on Thursday and plans to lay off 110 engineers and scientists with more than 10 years of service Friday.
About 100 temporary workers will be out next month.
A spokeswoman said the layoffs were the first "involuntary separations" of permanent employees in 35 years, and were the result of a budget shortfall and higher expenses related to the lab's transition to new management by private firms.
Since October 2006, the nuclear weapons research lab's workforce has shrunk through a combination of attrition, retirements, buyouts and layoffs from 8,800 employees to about 6,800.
But spokeswoman Susan Houghton said the lab's chief mission - to design, test and upgrade the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile - is not at risk.
Among the lab's missions is the design and development of "reliable replacement warheads" for the Navy - without underground testing. Much of that work is accomplished through predictive simulations on supercomputers at the Lawrence Livermore lab.
The lab, in operation since 1952, is also reviewing the safety, security and reliability of other nuclear weapons including the W62 and W87 intercontinental ballistic missile warheads, the B83 strategic bomb, and the W80 and W84 cruise missile warheads.
"I know this is a difficult time," lab Director George Miller said Wednesday in an e-mail to workers. "We have tried to provide as much support as possible to our employees who will be leaving the laboratory."
Earlier this year, about 500 temporary and contract workers, including employees on some of the lab's long-term projects, were let go as part of the lab's "workplace restructuring."
Separately, 215 laboratory workers, including scientists, engineers, technicians, financial analysts, procurement specialists and administrative support personnel, chose to leave the lab in March in exchange for severance packages in which they were awarded one week of extra pay for every year of service.
Among the employees laid off this week are chemists, biologists and environmental engineers.
"Some of these employees have worked here a very long time," said Houghton, adding that the lab does not anticipate further layoffs later this year. "We appreciate their service, and know it's hard."
She said that some employees in the lab's Weapons and Complex Integration section, which designs, assesses and certifies the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, were let go. But, she added, "They are not employees who have critical skills."
A job resource center has been established to help laid-off employees with assistance on resume writing and benefits counseling.
Houghton said the layoffs were needed to cover a budget gap of $280 million - $100 million of which resulted from decreased funding by Congress, and the rest tied to higher-than-expected costs for the lab's transition from being managed solely by the University of California to a new management consortium led by San Francisco's Bechtel National Inc.
The lab must pay higher health care costs for employees under the new management structure and taxes that were not owed when the facility was run by the state.
"It is a time of change and challenge," Miller said. "It is crucial that we pay attention to the laboratory's day-to-day operations and to ensuring that all work is done safely and securely."
Since October, the lab - a square-mile site owned by the U.S. Department of Energy - has been run by Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC, which includes Bechtel and the University of California, along with BWX Technologies Inc., Washington Group International and Battelle.
"With the help of our corporate parents, we have already identified operational efficiencies and savings that we're implementing at the laboratory," Houghton said.
More than $1 billion of the lab's $1.6 billion budget is devoted to its nuclear weapons programs.
Houghton said that no programs have been eliminated or altered significantly as a result of the downsizing, but some lab operations have been consolidated.
"We are a national security laboratory, so we are going to work very hard to retain the national security skills to fulfill our mission," Houghton said. "Like any good business, we're going to set our goals and reorganize based on where we believe future work will be coming from and how we can deliver our goods and services in the most efficient manner.
"It was a very hard decision, but one that was necessary to position us for the future," she said.
E-mail Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com.
SH must have trained the black widow or visa versa. This looks like the same BS that was handed to the poor people that got sucked into TCP-1 and now she sucking the press into believing the same tom of BS the black widow handed us over a year ago. If Jim Doyle at jdoyle@sfchronicle.com is smart he'll filter this PAO BS out and interview those who were shit canned. There'll you'll get some facts.
To: Computation
From: Dona Crawford
Date: May 23, 2008
The last couple of weeks, and in particular these last two days, have been particularly stressful. No matter where we sit in the organization, we are each affected in our own way. Dealing with our emotions will take some time, weeks or even months. Please be kind to yourself and look out for one another as we process what's happened and try to move forward.
The e-line announcement from George Miller this week mentioned the Lab would be releasing approximately 440 indefinite career employees and up to 100 additional employees from our flexible workforce. It is important that you know, whether you get a WARN notice or not, no flexible workforce employees in Computation will be released during this next round of layoffs. Computation has lost 21 FX employees through resignation or early end of appointment. Twenty-two people took the VSSOP and we released 71 people in the involuntary separation. We have lost additional people through attrition, such that our total losses are 153, or more than 15% of our workforce since the start of the FY. We are at a point now where getting requested programmatic work done will be challenging.
I know there continues to be nervousness in the system, and here again, it will take some time for that to dissipate. I've seen the solid budget projections for next year, along with the new rates resulting from our dramatic workforce cut backs and non-labor cost reductions. The Lab is close to achieving its goal of making the cost of an FTE equal to what it was in FY07. This will make us competitive and allow us to bring in new work. There is no shortage of pressing important national security problems and great science for us to work on together. For those of us who remain, I believe we need to steward the Lab and ensure its future is in keeping with the principles and values that brought us here.
Thank you for your dedication and continued hard work through these trying times. I have full confidence we will be successful together.
-Dona
I have not posted here in quite a while.
I have been involved in making novel high efficiency engines, in making new devices that learn from their environment, and in finishing a CD of images of Los Alamos through time.
My multi-year successes in finding jobs for LLNL and LANL staff who are laid off was put on the shelf until now.
If you would like to know whether this expertise might be useful to you, contact me (eric.fairfield@gmail.com).
Good luck
This sentence from Donna Crawford's message:
"...We are at a point now where getting requested programmatic work done will be challenging...."
would indicate that too many worker bees were laid off and not enough drones.
I suspect they will keep enough of you for the classified stuff until its all gone and then Geek Squad will take over the rest of your duties. Desktop support has the most to worry about. It can be out-sourced immediately just like procurement is going to be. That will probably go through India or the Philippines.
may 25th 3:46PM
Dona could do her part in saving the Lab by cutting anyone with "deputy" or assistant in their title. Add it all up and see the balance tip!
Eric, Let's here about your "multi-year" successes in finding jobs for LANL and LLNL laid off employees, since this is a relatively new phenomenon for both labs.
May 25, 2008 3:46 PM
May 25, 2008 5:50 PM
Amen to both of you.
I've lost track of how many division leaders I've had over the years. Seems as if they just keep naming more and more managers.
Don't you know it's not what you know but who you know - and know well - you know?
There is no doubt that some good people left last week. The fact that LLNS mismanaged Lab costs needs to be addressed in award fee and other means by DOE.
On the other hand, a number of people who left last week should have been given the boot years ago. The UC layoff policies are fine for skilled crafts, but not for technical personnel. We need new policies that will allow us to trim the dead or unneeded wood so that the best can survive.
"We need new policies that will allow us to trim the dead or unneeded wood so that the best can survive."
There would go most of upper management.
"trim the dead or unneeded wood"
Needed for what? I have yet to hear a clearly articulated mission for the lab.
"...I have yet to hear a clearly articulated mission for the lab..."
Why waste the breath? Your mind is closed.
But for those with open minds.
"1. So our A-bombs go boom when POUS orders them and they don't when he doesn't."
"2. We don't get outsmarted in weapons science by ......"
"3. It stays this way until we disarm."
Repeat these until they sink in...
Domenici and Feinstein (reluctantly) get it, Bonyer is learning, O'bama is avoiding the hard truth.
"...I have yet to hear a clearly articulated mission for the lab..."
Domenici and Feinstein (reluctantly) get it, Bonyer is learning, O'bama is avoiding the hard truth.
I'm with Feinstien on this one. It's truly time to change the mission away from weapons and put the funds where they are needed. No one at LLNL except for old ULM wants to hear that LLNL mission is still to be weapons of any sort. Energy independence is far more important at this time.
"....No one at LLNL except for old ULM wants to hear that LLNL mission is still to be weapons of any sort...."
Hey, Senator Domenici is blogging again!
"...and put the funds where they are needed..."
Increasing the body count in Iraq?
Devaluing the peso, I mean dollar.
Katrina relief?
Halliburton?
Enron?
pick your best in show
one good waste is as good as another
May 26, 2008 8:57 PM
Nope, like renewable energy and alternative energy. Anything except oil, coal, or piss poor constructed nuclear power plants build on fault lines or in a state that has a lot of quakes. I'd prefer they be afloat many miles off shore.
"...Nope, like renewable energy and alternative energy.."
OK Peter Pan, time for bed. But when you wake up from your Neverland dream, your mommy will need a real energy source to cook your breakfast.
So please name the renewable that works or will work soon in sufficient capacity that LLNL's specific talent can help. Fusion? Breeder reactors? Duck shit?
If you cared to think clearly, what you are stating is: take funds away from nuclear weapons sceince support because the renewable energy "idea" that is not funded sufficiently is better for US citizens than a marginally supported nuclear stockpile.
I don't buy it. Of the 2-3Trillion dollars the US government spends each year, taking $250M-$500M from weapons science (while maintaining the lie that it has no effect on performance)and putting it to "another" risky hairbrained "renewable' fantasy is not a good idea.
Why not just hand it to pot farmers? Or burn it?
May 27, 2008 7:59 AM
You can do nothing and die at the hands of those who hold the crude or you can do something and utilize the free resourses we have and live. It's your call. Nuke and weapons are not the answer. With people like you at the helm we are all doomed because of your foolishness and misappropriation of funds.
It's a weapons Lab and always has been. And will remain so until it ceases to exist! Let's face it this RIF would of happened long ago if it hadn't been for NIF! Remember when we stopped testing we were going to become the Green Lab, then CRADA's were going to save the day until outside industry found out how freaking expensive we were even back then! Even though they weren't paying our costs we couldn't deliver enough to keep their interest! We can't solve the energy crises because we cost too much. UC created this top heavy bloated giant because management was where the money was. They created new positions to pull their buddies up into the ranks. And now it's so engrained into Lab culture that even the new management team doesn't know how to down size it. Or more like they don't care to because their only here for 7 years!
"We can't solve the energy crises because we cost too much."
Exactly and that's why the lab should be shut down. Weapons work isn't needed any more and they can't seem to come up with anything new that's of national importance. Most of what they do in HLS can be done elsewhere cheaper and we surely don't need bio-weapons. So what does that leave LLNL to do? Gee--- nada ? I am now to the point to where I agree with funding being diverted to other renewable energy project but only if the are executive orders that mandate change and implementation in five year. If there's no backbone to the order and willingness to succeed in a timely fashion then they become just another sink hole. The good old USA can't afford not to act quickly or she'll be gone at the mercy of your middle eastern enemies.
"...Weapons work isn't needed any more..."
Factually wrong. As long as there is a US nuclear weapons stockpile, sensible taxpayers will require weapons science to maintain it. Without weapons science we will not have a stockpile.
This isn't cooking class
Get your thinking straight, so you can present sensible arguments.
The decision that your side needs to encourage is to eliminate the US nuclear stockpile; then the labs aren't needed. The contrary is not true.
Of course, as you know, unilateral US nuclear disarmament is a silly idea.
Lab decisions worse than usual?
Have you noticed, now that LLNS management no longer consults with employees, how poor decisions are?
I am in Los Alamos, am a former LANL staff member, and am working on projects that could form one leg of a new mission for LLNL.
One project concerns real world energy saving. The other concerns advanced sensor systems and their decision support.
I am looking for smart hard working folk who want to help get these projects completed, with or without government involvement.
If you are interested, contact me.
eric.fairfield@gmail.com
Form Factor (Livermore, CA) is looking for experienced folks in the areas of mechanical, chemical, materials, and electrical engineering. Work experience in microelectronics and/or MEMS would be advantageous, but not required. Follow the embedded link for more info.
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