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
52 comments:
"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."
Does anyone believe this statement especially the text in bold. I believe the RIF may be over for FY-08 with the exception of 50 a month but I can't see how George can make this conclusion when he has no clue what LLNL's budget is for FY-09. If I recall he said at his last meeting. " with the election coming we probably will not know what our budget is until Feb of 2009" At that time we'll have to re-examine our workforce verse budget and needs.
I had heard there was going to be 180-200 contract and terms out the door before Christmas and I guess this confirms one more rumor was true.
Wiat a minute. I thought this RIF was only going to be FTE's and no more WARN act notices were to be issues. Was this just a fib?
"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."
Those who can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it...
I'm retired---thank gosh! I joined LLNL in the 1970's. I was not here for the 1973 layoff (the last one before this week), but I had a lot of friends who were. I heard stories of anger, sadness, betrayal, denial and paranoia similar to what one hears now.
What's interesting is also how similar to now the state of the nation was in 1973:
An unpopular war.
An energy crisis.
A stagflation economy.
A disgraced Republican President (Nixon) soon to leave office.
My politics back then were recently converted to ex-Republican. It's the same today---you'd think I'd learn.
It will soon be over indeed. Some in the next couple of days, the rest of us in the months ahead as they trickle out 50 per month, until the next workforce restructuring plan when they may or may not offer another severance package (most likely the latter). It's a wake-up call for all of us to prepare for the inevitable.
It's going to get pretty nasty tomorrow. Employees will have one hour to pack their office. The escort is only to allow items like pictures and awards. EVERYTHING else will be reviewed by management and if it it determined to be yours, they will pack it and ship it to you.
As for your computer, you will be allowed to create a folder and copy your files to it. Management will review that file when the get around to it and make a CD and send it to you.
You will not be allowed to say goodbuy to friends and coworkers - it's off to the exit center.
The lab will create an email bounce that will basically say the employee you contacted no longer works here. If this is lab business contact someone else. You may contact this employee at home@email.com.
The 200 series with more than 10 years aren't much different.
I told you to pack early!
it will be over in december when another 1500 are out the gate!!!!!!
Flex term employees are (or were) considered the future of the lab. So much for flex term. Can you imagine losing your job while a contract employee who has zero allegiance to the lab gets to stay?
The future is contract labor and outsourcing. After this next colon cleansing nobody in their right mind will ever accept a flex term position (unless they suck and can't find work anywhere else).
Read the Q & A on "Retooling Page".
One of the answers says:
"The 3161 has been approved through fiscal year 2009". I smell a rat cleaning up Bechtel's impulsive acts this past 6 months.
Sorry Mr. Blogger if this should be posted on the "Rant" blog.
who's Geroge???
I have a suggestion to all of us that recieved a warn act notice. We should copy it and send it to our congressional delegation. This way they would see a name behind the number of employees that are being laid off.
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.
It's over - now for those who were "excluded" - the rest of the story.
If someone is not laid off tomorrow is it true the next round will not offer a severance pkg? I have 25yrs. I will be ticked off if pass tomorrow only to be laid off in 5 months with nothing.
Does anyone remember hearing that the contract transition from UC to LLNS was only going to be a legal name change? I remember hearing GM say, "Everyone will keep their jobs. There will be no layoffs as a result of this transition."
So, tell me again why anyone should believe this email from GM saying that future involuntary separations won't be necessary?
I guess the 50 or less people they can let go every month without WARN/3161 notification are leaving voluntarily? Wouldn't those releases be considered "future involuntary separations" by their very nature?
Sadly, I just don't believe anything I hear from management any more, as much as I'd like to. One short year ago I did believe what came out of the mouths of my managers and I had every reason to keep believing them. Now it seems like everything they say makes them appear to either be outright liars or complete idots.
Lawrence Livermore to distribute 440 pink slips this week
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Article Created: 05/21/2008 06:42:11 PM PDT
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is laying off hundreds of workers.
The lab will give pink slips tomorrow to 330 career employees, and another 110 on Friday.
More than a third of those being laid off are scientists and engineers at the lab, which conducts nuclear weapons research and other national security and scientific work.
Lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton says Lawrence Livermore is working as hard as possible to place the laid-off workers in new jobs. The lab has identified more than 1,000 possible private-sector jobs that the laid-off workers might apply for.
The lab's work force was about 8,000 just two and a half years ago, but has been reduced by some 1,800 through attrition, retirements and layoff.
Now, does anyone really believe good old GM anymore? Remember: "no lay offs, no out sourcing!" I'm afraid many people made up their minds on taking TCP 1 based on that and are now stuck, without the chance to go back to UC and start accruing more time. He has no credibility, and the Rectel boys and girls never had any credibility.
Why did George think it was so necessary to have Alameda County Sheriff units onsite monitoring the "Employee Exit" Center... couldn't Lab Security handle it?
For those who still have jobs at LLNL they will go into work Tuesday and it will be a different Lab. If the course the Lab is on is not reversed, the Lab will be destroyed as a quality research institution. There are not raises, there's no job security and our management is incompetent and dishonest. Attracting new researchers to such an institution is going to be difficult. If things don't change LLNL is on its way to becoming another NASA.
In my opinon the lab in the next couple of years will be known as Rectal Northern California. Every one there will be traveling doing work for others Like going to Iraq or Afganistan. The mood of the lab today and for the next couple of weeks will be that of " Oh look that building is on fire oh well...."
As LANL's former Director Sig Hecker recently stated in Congress, corporatization of the labs has turned them into places that feel like prisons. Yeah, he actually said that to the Senators!
You weren't just laid off today. You were "Rechtelized" by Bechtel and it's all just getting started, thanks to NNSA.
May 22, 2008 5:57 PM
As one of the 42,500 employees of "Rectal", a company that booked more than $34B of business in 2007 in the US and around the world, I take offense at your crude reference to the company that I have proudly been a part of for more than 15 years. Bechtel has been around for more than 100 years and has been a part of some of the greatest achievements or our time. If you truly became "Bechtel Northern California" it could only be an improvement.
Typical ULM sleight-of-hand, divide and conquer strategy. "Aren't we great guys, we're laying off less FTEs than everyone thought!" I guess they hope the FTEs will get some sort of relief now that their chances of not being laid off have improved (and hopefully, they won't care about the Flex Terms, who they've now pitted them against. " Hey, it's a dog eat dog world"). As for the Flex Terms, I reckon ULM justifies it with "too bad for them, they knew what they were getting into when they accepted that status, and we need a body count." As for the statements about future ISPs not being necessary? Complete BS in my opinion. I think that they hide behind weasel words like "given the information I have now" and "what we might expect." If reduced budget comes in later, or even if they just feel like canning a few more people, I predict that they will cop out with "budget picture changed" or "work needs have changed,", or better yet with "management and transition costs were higher than expected," or "it's not our fault." All those excuses worked before and they weren't held accountable for being either dishonest or incompetent. Why not use them again? I can just hear SH, LLNS minister of propaganda, explaining it to the media with a completely straight and innocent face. All the while, ULM (and SH) will be collecting their large checks and fat bonuses. Welcome to corporate America.
May 22, 2008 8:04 PM
Do some research on Rectal and you will find that every DOE facility that you guys every took over the first this you jerks did was cut the work force by 50%, gave your ULM big pay raises, out sourced every ones job and then the next step was to close the gates. At that time you collected your money and moved on to the next place to destroy. You are now doing that in Iraq.
A little research and one look at you path of destruction your firm leaves behind during the transition told me one thing. Take TCP-2 as 51% of us did and never trust bechtel one bit. My gut feeling was 100% . Everything LLNS said they wouldn't do, they did and George is still at it by promising no pay offs in 2009.
May 22, 2008 8:04 PM
"If you truly became "Bechtel Northern California" it could only be an improvement."
University of California researchers have won over 50 Nobel Prizes... how many from Bechtel.
UC ran the lab as a non profit public service... Bechtel does it to make money.
UC tried to hire the best and brightest to work at the lab... Bechtel moves its retreads from other DOE sites its destroyed.
UC treated the lab as a part of its family... Bechtel treats it as a cash cow.
UC ran the lab for $8 million a year, used to cover UCOP Lab admin staff cost and fund UC research at the lab... Bechtel gets close to $20 million, all for its bank accounts.
Anyone know if hazmat took a hit
"Take TCP-2 as 51% of us did"
I wonder how many jobs could have been saved if most had gone TCP-1?
Don't know where you are doing all that in-depth research that you refer to (BTW,Bechtel has been out of Iraq for some time now), but the facts don't support your assertion. I know you're upset over the tragic things occuring there, and I am truly sorry for those affected. But from what I can tell from this and the LANL blog, it is still a UC show there with a UC lab director and primarily an unchanged UC senior management team making the decisions. Maybe you should come up with a name that works better for a "UC" reference.
to post 5:57pm -
You don't have to defend your actions FR or any of the 42,500 employees of Bechtel. They are beyond "crude!"
TCP-1 is a joke. It's what ULM wanted to be fat so they can have their 100% pay at $435K a year. TCP-1 is to assure they survive. I was hoping that 90% of LLNL took TCP-2 and told ULM to go to he;;;!!! They can eat dog dodo.
May 22, 2008 8:45 PM
What's the hatchet doing out here? I hope the buffoon reads every comment. Bechtel is Rechtel and that's all she wrote.
UC constantly in the news for misuse of funds legal lapses.
Recent UC Berkeley Security Chief retires and receive $2M+ buyout, just be be rehired at higher salary (with no talent search performed for a replacement)
UC Tuition being raised while UC being routinely criticized for unparalled (and often illegal) award of perks to UC leadership.
How many "settled out of court" payouts for unfair treatment of employees over just the last 5 years?
Royally messed up last layoff attempt at a laboratory.
100's on EBA, some for years (very efficient! Paid to find a job - now that's a great perk!)
A safety culture that says employee injuries are just a part of the work.
Security that routinely provides media material.
Definitely a "non-profit," at least for the majority.
With more time and space, I'm sure you could help me complete the list.
Yes, UC is absolutely sinless!
(I will leave this discussion now, out of respect for those caused pain by the lay-offs).
May 22, 2008 9:05 PM
With all that UC was better than this LLNS.LLC will ever be. You guys don't even have a clue of what the mission of LLNL is going to be and you bring nothing to the table. You even go as far as making statements such as, " it's not our job to bring work to the lab, it's the engineers and scientists job to do that". That being the case just what do you do besides being parasites and hatchetmen. I haven't seen a single good thing that you've done for LLNL and could go on ripping the LLC a new ass but it's not worth the time of day or the paper it would be written on. I guess when some real work that's relative to our nations crisis other than weapons work comes into this facility I'll feel better, but for now you're SOP are sickening and your forte of seek and destroy everything you get your hands on is evident to all world wide. I guess that and making the rich richer is why George Bush hired you. You're a great government own business. You guys remind me of the never spoken about official government contracted hit-men that're on the payroll.
Obviously May 22, 2008 9:05 PM
You know nothing about UC or the history of UC at LLNL... everything that you cited came from the unknowing media and their natural bias for a sexy story/headline.
LLNL is a science lab, not a production site or construction project. It has little in common with SRS, NTS, Y-12, INL and other sites that the LLNS partners have run into the ground. LLNL does nave a lot in common with LBNL, which UC continues to run on its own and success in the eyes of DOE.
It was UC that founded LLNL, not DOE, not NNSA, not the AEC. Without UC, LLNL would never have come into existence.
LLNL was here long before NNSA, and long before DOE... unfortunately the NNSA's near criminal handling of their contracting responsibilities gives all indication that LLNL may not be around much longer.
Dear: As one of the 42,500 employees of "Rectal", a company that booked more than $34B of business in 2007 in the US and around the world, I take offense at your crude reference to the company that I have proudly been a part of for more than 15 years.
Rechtel has a long and sorry history of cost over runs and botched jobs. Look at the Big Dig. Why couldn't they hold on as M&O at NTS or Idaho? Poor managment and cost over runs. Hopefully our nation will start building nuclear powerplants again and Rechtel will put emphasis on really profitable jobs, rather than the little $20M fee jobs and leave us the heck alone.
Only a fool could possibly believe Bechtel and UC are in the same league when it comes to the ability to attract talented scientists and engineers to do R&D. Proud Bechtellians, tell me one single thing Bechtel R&D invented and brought to market. We know how many Nobel Prize winners they've spawned. What has Bechtel done besides helping make the oil producig nations and themselves very, very rich?
I say NO to nuclear power plants and NO to more drilling but I do say yes to renewable energy. We need electric everything. Forget the friggin oil, that's dead and stinking. Please see renewable energy on the side bar and write the president. We must get away from oil NOW, not ten years from now, but NOW as of midnight tonight. Any other mind-set is just stupidity.
May 23, 2008 2:21 PM
We can use the electric to make hydrogen without the use of oil but lets get there. If we continue to drill and find more oil the price is not going to go down and we don't have people in power that are smart enough to burn the candle at both ends. They'll just simply keep selling you oil and put off what must be done. These leaders we have are just jackasses. It's almost as if we need a good dictator. The oil companies must be told to go to hell and the greedy bastard no matter where they are in the world need to suffer the ultimate punishment for being that way.
It makes me physically ill to imagine that one day George Miller's portrait might hang alongside those of Edward Teller, Herb York, John Foster, Roger Batzel, et.al. in Building 111's California Room.
What would E. O. Lawrence think of George Miller and of his betrayal of all that was LLNL?
University of California researchers have won over 50 Nobel Prizes... how many from Bechtel.
How many from LLNL?
There have been two individuals that I know of that worked for LLNL and later won the Nobel.
Employees at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) were key contributors to reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Robert B. Laughlin, a longtime Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory employee and a professor of physics at Stanford University, received the 1998 Nobel Prize for physics.
Ernest O. Lawrence, who invented the cyclotron that spawned modern high energy physics research, the discovery of many new elements, and nuclear medicine.
Luis Walter Alvarez, Physics
Others visited and collaborated with LLNL, such as George Smoot (LBNL)and Glenn Seaborg.
Edward Teller surely would have won the Prize except that his work was not politically correct.
University of California researchers have won over 50 Nobel Prizes... how many from Bechtel.
How many from LLNL?
The answer is NO ONE has ever won the Nobel Prize for work performed at LLNL or while employed at LLNL.
May 24, 2008 12:11 PM
So waht is the point of this Nobel prize stuff. Rechtel and its ULM along with LLNS suck and that's the end of that converstaion.
Laughlin did his Nobel work while he was in the cooler. I heard that later he was ranked very low. But all of this Nobel work misses the point.
A. the original poster was making the point that UC is better suited to running an R&D oriented Lab than Bechtel.
B. the main purpose of the Lab is not to win prizes for pure R&D but it is to do applied R&D for national security problems
Just A Thought
I'm convinced that none of us no matter how good we are, are safe.
LLNS is going to shit can whomever they want, when they want and for what ever reason.
The only ones that can protect your job are the people you work for, and even they may not have enough Horse Power.
I've also come to the conclusion that each and everyone of us need to get into a mine set that says," I'm going to work today to do the best job I can, not for LLNS, but for myself" and with that we must understand that we may or may no survive the day. If for some reason we get tapped on the shoulder and your job comes to an abrupt end, you simply know, it wasn't your performance that got you axed, it was their stupidity; and for that reason it's their loss, not yours.
If LLNS accomplished nothing else while at the helm, they will have instilled self confidence in the few that understand the game, however that self confident can only come by your constant strive for perfection.
Never lose faith in yourself.
"Why did George think it was so necessary to have Alameda County Sheriff units onsite monitoring the "Employee Exit" Center... couldn't Lab Security handle it?
May 22, 2008 4:54 PM"
Alameda county S.O. is the contracted law enforcement entity for the lab. Before the transition, it was U.C. police.
The PFD is security for the lab, ACSO is law enforcement for the lab. Do you really need to ask why they were there?
May 25, 2008 3:34 PM
The only reason they were there was because the managers needed body guards to protect them. The good news is they'll have to sleep with one eye open from now on. Did anyone notice George and Frank weren't there to even shake your hand and tell you they were sorry or a job well done. Do I need to describe their demeanor or should I say cowardness.
May 26, 2008 7:40 AM
Forget George and Frank. My husband put 30 dedicated years into the same program, and none of the management came forward to shake his hand, say good-bye or thanks or anything.
What COWARDS!!!
I'm disgusted and thoroughly angry. Where's the humanity in ANY of this? Oh, don't answer that. It's only a rhetorical question.
Now, we're both in the job market again. Believe me, if any young person queries me about the Lab, I'll have NOTHING good to say about its current incarnation.
George Miller's word is as good a toilet paper, good for one use.
He is out of his league.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
What self-respecting flexterm is going to stay on here? I encourage them to flee the chaos....
"What self-respecting flexterm is going to stay on here? I encourage them to flee the chaos...."
I'm waiting to hear on an interview for a non-LLNL job that will pay more and offer the opportunity for a second pension - without having to relocate my family. And almost no chance of getting laid off. Chances are probably 75% I'll get an offer - I don't think I'll need to give it much thought ....
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