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Saturday, May 23, 2009
One year after the layoff...
Anonymous wants to know how the folks that were laid off almost a year ago are doing? Where are you now? Are you happier? Going through hardship? drop a line!
21 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Still looking. I am house-sharing and have a full time job of looking for a job. When I heard the Lab is spending 17M just to look pretty for a few days, it made me sick. The layoff was not the only way to reduce cost. I hope it will stay on Miller's conscience for the rest of his life! He could have opposed it.
It's weird how all those who lost their jobs at LLNL become non-people almost over night. It's like they never even existed. No one will talk much about it. The layoff has poisoned the atmosphere at this lab. Most of the employees who are left are waiting with anxiety to hear the announcement of the next wave of layoffs. Any trust in LLNS upper management has been completely broken by the RIF event.
Leaving California is a good thing. MSNBC just announced the official unemployement rate of Ca is 25.1% and climbing. Time to split as soon as you get your notice.
Found a job almost immediately, been there almost a year. Just informed that our jobs are being outsourced to another company. We are welcome to apply with them at a salary I was making in 1980.Back to the drawing board.
I was fortunate and had retired before being laid off so things are tight but not critical. I was planning on working another 7-8 years to actually have a real retirement as well as pay for kids college but that all disappeared! I have been trying to find work for over 2 years and they just don't want older people but I keep trying.
On the other side: it was the best thing that ever happened to me as it has opened the door to be involve in areas of interest that I never had time for while working.
Would I ever come back to a Bechtel operated and Miller led organization? Not only NO but Hell NO.
In comparison to enhanced interrogation methods [torture, LLNS practiced enhanced separation techniques when they laid us off in such a disrespectful way.
Found a job right away last year, but the company's business went down and I was laid off after 9 months. I've been looking for a job for 2 months now.
Haven't found anything at all for a year, since leaving plant.Haven't heard anything else about what the union's doing about my supossed "Illegal" layoff, sounds like nothing to me, and since they have the contract seems like they don't care about anything else, "who cares about the laid off? we have ours",typical. Decided to say screw it and am going back to school full time, and am in it for the long haul.Good riddance to that place.I now believe accepting an apprenticeship position there was the worst decision of my life.
Still out of work but have excellent prospects at LBL. Should know in a week or so, and will relocate from the SJ valley if/when hired.
I'm hacked that LLNL has not recalled me; several positions have been filled by reassigning unqualified people into vacancies, as opposed to bringing back qualified folks. (Bad for me but understandable for LLNL).
Otherwise life is good - have had time to get a lot done, wrap up deferred maintenance projects, work on hobbies, time with the wife, etc...
...and the top managers at LLNS are still doing extremely well with much larger salaries and better perks.
However, the move to "for-profit" management destroyed LLNL at its very core. It was a fatal error on the part of NNSA. LLNL will now face slow death under a policy of neglect from the US Congress.
I was hoping I would stir up things with this "One Year After" Blog. I miss my friends at the Lab. Still looking, semi-retired and applying for jobs at Lab. I heard about the NIF beauty contest, hope nobody got replaced by a flower.
130 Former Lawrence Livermore Lab Employees File Lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Alleging Illegal Age Discrimination
OAKLAND, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 21, 2009, the Law Firm of Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer filed an age discrimination lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Case Number 09453596 on behalf of 130 former employees against Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) , the private company co-owned by Bechtel and the University of California that operates the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
On May 22 and 23, 2008, LLNS laid off approximately 440 employees, the vast majority of whom were the Lab's most senior, experienced employees. California law prohibits discrimination in the workplace against any employee who is over the age of 40 years old, based upon that employee's age. 130 of those employees have retained Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer to challenge the layoffs. These former Lab employees include administrative assistants, maintenance workers, engineers and senior scientists. The 130 employees filed one lawsuit, but are seeking damages based upon their individual circumstances. These are consolidated cases; it is not a class action lawsuit.
The former employees contend that they were selected by the Lab to lose their jobs because they were older workers (over 40) who were approaching their retirement age. As a result, these former employees are out of work at a stage in life when finding new employment is particularly challenging. Most of these workers have suffered a severe financial hit in the amount of retirement income and benefits they will eventually receive because of their forced, premature "retirement."
The laid off workers contend that the Layoff selection process utilized by the Lab was illegal. The former employees contend that the Lab did not follow Federal Law by seeking voluntary separations to eliminate the need for any layoffs.
Furthermore, approximately 94% of those laid off were over the age of 40, making them "protected employees" pursuant to California's anti-age discrimination laws. The Lab ignored its own polices to target these older workers because of their advanced salaries and approaching retirements.
Today, these targeted older workers are fighting back by filing this lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court.
According to J. Gary Gwilliam, lead counsel for the former employees, "It's unfortunate that the Lawrence Livermore Lab, the University of California and Bechtel Corporation would treat their employees in a discriminatory manner. I don't think the Department of Energy, with whom they contract, would approve of such conduct. These entities should be setting the highest standards of fairness in the workplace, not the lowest. We are confident the Court will correct this obvious injustice."
In addition, several different plaintiffs allege different kinds of discrimination including race, gender, disability, family leave rights and sexual orientation as well as retaliation. The complaint also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
CONTACTS: For more information and a copy of the complaint please contact J. Gary Gwilliam, Esq., Randall E. Strauss, Esq., Jane Felice Gorelick
Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, A Prof Corp. 1999 Harrison Street, Oakland, California (510) 832-5411
Was laid off, so was spouse, panicked and thrashed around a while. Finally went to work as a freelance type. Have two steady bread-and-butter clients and others that come and go. It wasn't the life I'd envisioned (and like 47 above, we have kids and college costs still ahead), but we're "making do." I've decided I will never put all my eggs in one basket (i.e., depend on only one employer/client) again. Glad I'm gone, given what I hear about the place. Too bad. It was fun while I was there ... almost 30 years. I learned a lot, met a lot of very neat people, lived through interesting times. Oh well.
After 30 years of dedicated service to LLNL, management told me I was laid off last May. I could not believe it. Even though I was considered an outstanding employee and had plenty of work, I was told to pack up my things, sign a document giving up my Q clearance, and get out now. I was told my lay off was permanent. I was treated like I had done something very wrong, like I was a criminal, even though I had a perfect work history. Been looking for a job for eleven months now with no luck. Seems like no one wants to offer a good job to a sixty year old. I miss the people I worked with and the projects I was involved in. I hope no one else is laid off in the future and that Livermore Lab continues to be well funded as I believe in the lab's mission. I have joined the lawsuit and plan on fighting my lay off in court. In many work groups several older employees were kicked out the gate while the younger employees that had less seniority got to keep their jobs. There are laws against age discrimination in the work place. I am very confident our law firm will be successful in Alameda County Superior Court.
Brovo Zulu, well done and I wish all of you $M's each to make up for the life they ripped from you. Make sure you all get no less then $1M each after taxes and lifetime medical ALL expenses paid by LLNS / Rectal. That's very important.
Still out of work, saw my job posted today as a internal only on the LLNL job page. I heard from my former managers who said they are thinking of me. Why weren't they thinking of me when they marched me out the door! I have applied for several jobs with my old department and got treated like an outcast. I can hardly believe how quickly we were forgotten about by our friends. If the economy was good I would get back to work and forget all about the Lab, but now that I have so much time on my hands I find myself getting more resentful every day.
Have you been living under a rock? Have you seen the unemployment rates and the economy? I know people with advanced degrees who cannot find work. I know people with a lifetime of trades/crafts experience who can't find work. Your stupidity clearly defines LLNS's policy of retaining "The best and the brightest" .
I have decided to obtain more education, since the economy sucks anyway, why not? The Lab was the only place I ever worked where even though I took my job seriously, and strived to perform my best on every assignment I was given, strived to perform my assignments as efficiently as possible, and even helped clients save money in labor by giving them tips to reduce the costs I was still canned. It was sad to see some of the labor estimates coming from plant, the estimated hours on most of the jobs where ridiculous, but you can bet all the hours where used up and charged, and many times by people who never even worked the job! just used the work order to fill the idle time on their hands. Plant didn't want efficient workers. Bull you say? Audit the work orders and whiz tag hours, especially the whiz tags as its harder to cover up, you will see a majority of time spent by one person, that's the time spent to actually do the job.But the whiz tag is fully charged, what's up? That's the fill in. Anyone need some time?, I have room on this tag?. I saw this everyday for years. I knew others who were against this practice, and actually spoke up, guess what? They where laid off, go figure.It was never about performing well or actually caring about a client, it was all about playing the game.
To say it has been difficult would be an understatement: Found work in Sacramento funny thing was 70 % of the work force did not speak English anyway ending up moving to Tennessee working for a great company so the future is much brighter than it was during layoffs at LLNL. Had my home on the market for over a year and with all the foreclosures I lost over 80,000 in equity so we now rent the property and are making the best of it in Tennessee. I hope all goes well for those left at LLNL, for me it was a great place to work. Thinking of the negative part at the lab I only had one bad experience as my wife had an affair with someone I worked with and trusted this was the hardest part of staying at the lab amazing to me how he kept his clearance. Looking back I have made the right choice by moving to Tennessee I do miss my friends and the west coast weather. For those who know me you know the story. Stephen Beard
21 comments:
Still looking. I am house-sharing and have a full time job of looking for a job. When I heard the Lab is spending 17M just to look pretty for a few days, it made me sick.
The layoff was not the only way to reduce cost. I hope it will stay on Miller's conscience for the rest of his life! He could have opposed it.
It's weird how all those who lost their jobs at LLNL become non-people almost over night. It's like they never even existed. No one will talk much about it. The layoff has poisoned the atmosphere at this lab. Most of the employees who are left are waiting with anxiety to hear the announcement of the next wave of layoffs. Any trust in LLNS upper management has been completely broken by the RIF event.
One year later and still unemployed. Jobs are scarce, salaries are getting lower. This has definitely been an life-altering experience.
Found a job but had to leave the N. Cal area, probably never to return.
May 25, 2009 10:00 AM
Leaving California is a good thing. MSNBC just announced the official unemployement rate of Ca is 25.1% and climbing. Time to split as soon as you get your notice.
Found a job almost immediately, been there almost a year. Just informed that our jobs are being outsourced to another company. We are welcome to apply with them at a salary I was making in 1980.Back to the drawing board.
I was fortunate and had retired before being laid off so things are tight but not critical. I was planning on working another 7-8 years to actually have a real retirement as well as pay for kids college but that all disappeared! I have been trying to find work for over 2 years and they just don't want older people but I keep trying.
On the other side: it was the best thing that ever happened to me as it has opened the door to be involve in areas of interest that I never had time for while working.
Would I ever come back to a Bechtel operated and Miller led organization? Not only NO but Hell NO.
In comparison to enhanced interrogation methods [torture, LLNS practiced enhanced separation techniques when they laid us off in such a disrespectful way.
Found a job right away last year, but the company's business went down and I was laid off after 9 months. I've been looking for a job for 2 months now.
Haven't found anything at all for a year, since leaving plant.Haven't heard anything else about what the union's doing about my supossed "Illegal" layoff, sounds like nothing to me, and since they have the contract seems like they don't care about anything else, "who cares about the laid off? we have ours",typical. Decided to say screw it and am going back to school full time, and am in it for the long haul.Good riddance to that place.I now believe accepting an apprenticeship position there was the worst decision of my life.
Still out of work but have excellent prospects at LBL. Should know in a week or so, and will relocate from the SJ valley if/when hired.
I'm hacked that LLNL has not recalled me; several positions have been filled by reassigning unqualified people into vacancies, as opposed to bringing back qualified folks. (Bad for me but understandable for LLNL).
Otherwise life is good - have had time to get a lot done, wrap up deferred maintenance projects, work on hobbies, time with the wife, etc...
"One year after the layoff..."
...and the top managers at LLNS are still doing extremely well with much larger salaries and better perks.
However, the move to "for-profit" management destroyed LLNL at its very core. It was a fatal error on the part of NNSA. LLNL will now face slow death under a policy of neglect from the US Congress.
I was hoping I would stir up things with this "One Year After" Blog. I miss my friends at the Lab. Still looking, semi-retired and applying for jobs at Lab. I heard about the NIF beauty contest, hope nobody got replaced by a flower.
130 Former Lawrence Livermore Lab Employees File Lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Alleging Illegal Age Discrimination
OAKLAND, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 21, 2009, the Law Firm of Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer filed an age discrimination lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court Case Number 09453596 on behalf of 130 former employees against Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) , the private company co-owned by Bechtel and the University of California that operates the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
On May 22 and 23, 2008, LLNS laid off approximately 440 employees, the vast majority of whom were the Lab's most senior, experienced employees. California law prohibits discrimination in the workplace against any employee who is over the age of 40 years old, based upon that employee's age. 130 of those employees have retained Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer to challenge the layoffs. These former Lab employees include administrative assistants, maintenance workers, engineers and senior scientists. The 130 employees filed one lawsuit, but are seeking damages based upon their individual circumstances. These are consolidated cases; it is not a class action lawsuit.
The former employees contend that they were selected by the Lab to lose their jobs because they were older workers (over 40) who were approaching their retirement age. As a result, these former employees are out of work at a stage in life when finding new employment is particularly challenging. Most of these workers have suffered a severe financial hit in the amount of retirement income and benefits they will eventually receive because of their forced, premature "retirement."
The laid off workers contend that the Layoff selection process utilized by the Lab was illegal. The former employees contend that the Lab did not follow Federal Law by seeking voluntary separations to eliminate the need for any layoffs.
Furthermore, approximately 94% of those laid off were over the age of 40, making them "protected employees" pursuant to California's anti-age discrimination laws. The Lab ignored its own polices to target these older workers because of their advanced salaries and approaching retirements.
Today, these targeted older workers are fighting back by filing this lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court.
According to J. Gary Gwilliam, lead counsel for the former employees, "It's unfortunate that the Lawrence Livermore Lab, the University of California and Bechtel Corporation would treat their employees in a discriminatory manner. I don't think the Department of Energy, with whom they contract, would approve of such conduct. These entities should be setting the highest standards of fairness in the workplace, not the lowest. We are confident the Court will correct this obvious injustice."
In addition, several different plaintiffs allege different kinds of discrimination including race, gender, disability, family leave rights and sexual orientation as well as retaliation. The complaint also alleges intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract and the breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
CONTACTS: For more information and a copy of the complaint please contact J. Gary Gwilliam, Esq., Randall E. Strauss, Esq., Jane Felice Gorelick
Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, A Prof Corp.
1999 Harrison Street, Oakland, California
(510) 832-5411
Was laid off, so was spouse, panicked and thrashed around a while. Finally went to work as a freelance type. Have two steady bread-and-butter clients and others that come and go. It wasn't the life I'd envisioned (and like 47 above, we have kids and college costs still ahead), but we're "making do." I've decided I will never put all my eggs in one basket (i.e., depend on only one employer/client) again.
Glad I'm gone, given what I hear about the place. Too bad. It was fun while I was there ... almost 30 years. I learned a lot, met a lot of very neat people, lived through interesting times.
Oh well.
After 30 years of dedicated service to LLNL, management told me I was laid off last May. I could not believe it. Even though I was considered an outstanding employee and had plenty of work, I was told to pack up my things, sign a document giving up my Q clearance, and get out now. I was told my lay off was permanent. I was treated like I had done something very wrong, like I was a criminal, even though I had a perfect work history.
Been looking for a job for eleven months now with no luck. Seems like no one wants to offer a good job to a sixty year old.
I miss the people I worked with and the projects I was involved in. I hope no one else is laid off in the future and that Livermore Lab continues to be well funded as I believe in the lab's mission.
I have joined the lawsuit and plan on fighting my lay off in court. In many work groups several older employees were kicked out the gate while the younger employees that had less seniority got to keep their jobs. There are laws against age discrimination in the work place. I am very confident our law firm will be successful in Alameda County Superior Court.
May 28, 2009 5:38 AM
Brovo Zulu, well done and I wish all of you $M's each to make up for the life they ripped from you. Make sure you all get no less then $1M each after taxes and lifetime medical ALL expenses paid by LLNS / Rectal. That's very important.
Still out of work, saw my job posted today as a internal only on the LLNL job page. I heard from my former managers who said they are thinking of me. Why weren't they thinking of me when they marched me out the door! I have applied for several jobs with my old department and got treated like an outcast. I can hardly believe how quickly we were forgotten about by our friends. If the economy was good I would get back to work and forget all about the Lab, but now that I have so much time on my hands I find myself getting more resentful every day.
If all of you who were laid off were really so valuable, why haven't you found a job by now?
To: "June 7, 2009 8:38 PM"
Have you been living under a rock? Have you seen the unemployment rates and the economy? I know people with advanced degrees who cannot find work. I know people with a lifetime of trades/crafts experience who can't find work. Your stupidity clearly defines LLNS's policy of retaining "The best and the brightest" .
I have decided to obtain more education, since the economy sucks anyway, why not? The Lab was the only place I ever worked where even though I took my job seriously, and strived to perform my best on every assignment I was given, strived to perform my assignments as efficiently as possible, and even helped clients save money in labor by giving them tips to reduce the costs I was still canned. It was sad to see some of the labor estimates coming from plant, the estimated hours on most of the jobs where ridiculous, but you can bet all the hours where used up and charged, and many times by people who never even worked the job! just used the work order to fill the idle time on their hands. Plant didn't want efficient workers. Bull you say? Audit the work orders and whiz tag hours, especially the whiz tags as its harder to cover up, you will see a majority of time spent by one person, that's the time spent to actually do the job.But the whiz tag is fully charged, what's up? That's the fill in. Anyone need some time?, I have room on this tag?. I saw this everyday for years. I knew others who were against this practice, and actually spoke up, guess what? They where laid off, go figure.It was never about performing well or actually caring about a client, it was all about playing the game.
To say it has been difficult would be an understatement: Found work in Sacramento funny thing was 70 % of the work force did not speak English anyway ending up moving to Tennessee working for a great company so the future is much brighter than it was during layoffs at LLNL.
Had my home on the market for over a year and with all the foreclosures I lost over 80,000 in equity so we now rent the property and are making the best of it in Tennessee.
I hope all goes well for those left at LLNL, for me it was a great place to work. Thinking of the negative part at the lab I only had one bad experience as my wife had an affair with someone I worked with and trusted this was the hardest part of staying at the lab amazing to me how he kept his clearance. Looking back I have made the right choice by moving to Tennessee I do miss my friends and the west coast weather.
For those who know me you know the story.
Stephen Beard
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