Anonymously contributed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/us/los-alamos-braces-for-deep-cuts-at-lab.html
"Mr. McMillan said the layoffs were necessary so that Los Alamos, which has shifted its mission from primarily nuclear weapons to national security, could continue its work...”
Los Alamos is a national security lab, not a weapons lab? So is there one or zero weapons labs left?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/us/los-alamos-braces-for-deep-cuts-at-lab.html
"Mr. McMillan said the layoffs were necessary so that Los Alamos, which has shifted its mission from primarily nuclear weapons to national security, could continue its work...”
Los Alamos is a national security lab, not a weapons lab? So is there one or zero weapons labs left?
Comments
Then there is the $200 million in lost weapons funding on top of that -- LANS shoving off LEP weapons life extension projects for LANL designed weapons to LLNL is one of the main culprits here.
And then, of course, funding of CMRR with all its associated planning functions is to be completely eliminated after Oct 1st. Charlie McMillan quickly abandoned his support for this one an dumped the body of CMRR on the side of the road as road kill.
So if recent history proves LANL is not a weapons lab and not a nation security lab what's left?
I got it! Liberal NM Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D) wants LANL to be an environmental research park. That's the ticket! The dismal path of Rocky Flats all over again.
LANS, indeed, is the "shut down crew". That should be obvious by now. The LANS upper management team is actively working to destroy what's left of the place and harm both the staff and the community, which they seem to detest.
Charles McMillan interview June 2010
With a nod to Lucy Ball
"Charles, you got some 'splainin to do" over the recent NYT interview.
That means that many of the long-term (older) staff who don't take the voluntary will be taking a very large cut in their severance payout when the involuntary layoffs start by late Spring.
Furthermore, any long-term regular staff who are sc#wed over by LANS in the involuntary layoff will also suffer the indignity of being required to sign a legal waiver promising to never sue LANS just to get that greatly reduced 26 weeks in severance!
I see a huge legal mess coming for this poorly thought out decision by LANS management. Anyone who is involuntary laid off would be signing severance papers for the reduced payouts under great duress! I suggest that employees start keeping good records over this whole sordid affair that LANS has created.
March 6, 2012 8:48 AM
Burns is a highly oversold product. Again, I saw the grades he brought here from UC Berkeley. While I give him credit for getting in, he couldn't qualify to be a summer student at LANL with his 3.1 GPA. That's why he doesn't have a PhD, he didn't qualify, and somehow this guy is a Deputy PAD. What a joke, no the joke is on us actually.
March 6, 2012 5:23 PM
Don't forget that all of the "excluded" workers will be REQUIRED to remain in their positions for 9-months. Is LANS also posting a $20,000 bond on these folks and installing a auto-ignition breathalyzer in their cars? What did they folks do wrong! LANS GONE WILD!
March 6, 2012 8:22 PM
Yea I hear Warden McMillan will be going to a prison lockdown. Inmates will be confined to their cells. No visitors and security guards will be ordered to "shoot to kill". "Excluded" inmates will be held in solitary confinement with no lights, no food, and no water for 9-months. Deputy Warden Knapp will leading a "rubber hosing" effort throughout the prison.
Long time employees at LANL, who have been EXCLUDED from the VSP program have started their own website at
http://lanllayoffs2012.blogspot.com
Please post your comments there and signup if you would like to participate with other employees who are investigating what actions may be able to be taken to force the Laboratory to open the program to everyone.
My guess is they did it in such a way as to keep a very few highly qualified people at LANL (and I do mean only a very few!), with the rest of the list filled out with lower qualified (i.e., low pay) workers so that they could minimize full (39 week) severance payouts of the more expensive, older research staff.
After the VSP, they'll involuntarily layoff a bunch of the older, much more expensive research staff and only be required to pay these unfortunate folks the much reduced 26 weeks in severance pay, rather than the promised 39 weeks. The cost difference here would be huge if we are talking about several hundred professionals in the "Scientist 3/4" categories -- the LANL category which make up the bulk of the lab's research staff !
If this was, indeed, the thought process behind the construction of the exclusion list then LANS might be vunerable to legal prosecution and investigation by several federal agency for their behavior.
If LANS won't release their exact methodology in constructing this list -- say, under the guise of "corporate proprietary information" -- then they should be forced to record and document *all* relevant materials (including management emails and any hand-written meeting notes) involved in the construction of this exclusion list.
LANS should not be allowed to destroy critical data that may be required in future legal proceedings, but I suspect that is exactly what they plan to do. Perhaps some type of legal "restraining order" is called for to stop them from shredding evidence of possible wrong doing?
March 7, 2012 7:58 PM
It all depends on your lawyer and how much you are willing to pay him. What other mechanism is there, except the pressure of Congress? Oh, wait, I forgot, your Congressional delegation does not give a shit! Too bad. Be careful who you vote for.
It's going to be brutal for the local economy and for morale at LANL. This will be the biggest and most devastating layoff ever seen in the history of the US nuclear weapons complex. Heckavajob, LANS!
This is only going to be the first round of painful layoffs and drastic benefit cuts implemented by LANS due to the lab's quickly shrinking budgets. CMRR is only a part of the problem. LANL Program Managers and LANS executives have been doing a terrible job at keeping the program funds coming into Los Alamos.
No other NNSA research facility are experiencing gross mis-management at this grand scale. The other labs are GROWING their budgets!
" LANS - Has - the - Plan,
For - Making - LANL - Gran.... "
Ah, H#LL, forget it.
Time to close up shop.
Last person to leave town, please turn off the lights.
The council needs to face reality and quickly! The money spigot is about to be turned off as large segments of the town's citizen are thrown out on the street by LANS and lose their lucrative lab jobs. Even the GRT funds are coming down rapidly with the loss of hundred of million of lab program funding which is taxed by the state and county as the project funds are spent.
If you live in Los Alamos, you may soon be paying almost as much in property taxes as you do for your mortgage. Just watch and see!
March 22, 2012 8:02 AM
Another pool soul blaming the media and LASG for all of our own internal problems at LANS.