Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it. Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!
Comments
Have you dealt with the infants lately?
I am sorry to say I look forward to the day the Laboratory outsources this function.
Unfortunately the NLRB is very liberal now and I do not think any company can win a case there.
It was sad to see (at the West Gate) how ungrateful people can be for this valuable employment we have. I think it hard to describe how the babies looked.
January 17, 2014 at 11:33 PM
Why would a highly educated engineer want to do a low-wage, blue collar job? Show me a welder or machinist who can design a data acquisition system for a physics experiment.
There is simply an expectation/demand that the equipment needed to run this lab be well maintained and that the managers not neglect this maintenance in order to save money as they increase their bonuses by pointing to this "cost saving".
Some may consider this expectation as harmful and even frivolous but when buildings and equipment start falling apart the obvious next step is to shut the building down and move the work to some other site.
If you want to embrace that possibility/likelihood then feel free to encourage our managers to let our buildings and equipment deteriorate as you complain about the people who have kept lots of this equipment running well past the manufactures estimated life span.
The sooner the Lab outsources,
the better.
It is time to outsource.
Absolutely. I know a lab engineer who first made his living as a welder.
Seeing these poor victims makes me think of why our great country is in so much trouble.
It is because people with little education (like these) are easily swayed and can be led easily by corrupt union leadership.
Maybe if they learned critical thinking (like in higher education)they could see how they look, I am actually embarrassed for them.
The poor little union victims.
January 19, 2014 at 4:37 PM
"Critical thinking" is very valuable in life, but will never be able to detect intent to deceive with lies about future actions. If anything, a typical liberal college and graduate education these days suppresses the natural urge to doubt and mistrust others. Today's kids grow up with their innate "bullshit detectors" having been deactivated by the indoctrination process we now call "higher education."
It really feels good not to no longer be at LLNL.
"...It is because people with little education (like these) are easily swayed and can be led easily by corrupt union leadership..."
The so called educated":
"..."Critical thinking" is very valuable in life, but will never be able to detect intent to deceive with lies about future actions..."
With this logic, only the "uneducated" are expected to see the future and know how and where they are being led. Hmmm. Sounds like either group can be misled, so we shouldn't look down our nose at our coworkers.
There. Was that so hard?
This has nothing to do with proper maintenance of equipment so that its failure is averted and the consequence of failure avoided.
Of course they are valuable but you can have much better value with a non-union contractor.
The every day headaches (on an operational level) of dealing with an uneducated union steward or high school drop out union head takes away from productivity at any business.
It is a no brainer that "anything" that has to do with a union is not productive for any company.
Just ask Apple.
They built their new factory in a Right to Work state.
January 20, 2014 at 6:07 AM
Don't hold your breath. Unless by "manufacturing, fabrication and craftwork" you mean stuff made out of plastic.
They built their new factory in a Right to Work state.
January 20, 2014 at 9:03 AM
Also Boeing.
At least they (the union) are smart enough to fight back.
I think everyone here agrees that a union atmosphere is the most unproductive entity in our society......
oh sorry I have to go for my union-mandated 45 minute break....I'll be back (LOL)
94% of the working class are NON-union.
I respect the working class, greatly.
What I DIS-respect are unions, < 6%.
The most unproductive entity there is.
in other words there is NOTHING productive about a union parasite.
January 20, 2014 at 6:33 PM
Historically accurate, but irrelevant to the discussion. Done is done.
I personally was all for unions back in the day.
Now the unions are different and have evolved.
I would not be part of a union for a million dollars.
Only weak minded followers would join a union.
Sorry treading as lightly as possible because unions are pretty messed up. It is sad. the original people who sacrificed for our unions would be ashamed at these Democratic voting organizations.
It is sad and you are a weak minded, lazy human being to belong to a modern union.
I know it is hard but try to think autonomously (that means try to think for yourself you poor drone) and try to see what a modern union stands for,
I know it is hard being a high school drop out but you poor union victim try to use your brain...try I know it is hard but try to think for yourself. Try!
To whom was your comment directed? January 20, 2014 at 7:31 PM was not a pro-union comment.
The flier said:
----------------
Who we are, and why we are picketing today
We are Lawrence Livermore National Lab’s maintenance workers—full--‐time employees of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC
We are skilled craftspeople whose job it is to keep the Laboratory running safely and efficiently. We are now negotiating our next contract with management.
We are journeyman air conditioning mechanics, locksmiths, boiler mechanics, carpenters, electricians, heavy equipment mechanics, laborers, maintenance mechanics, painters, plumber/pipefitters, riggers, sheet metal workers, trades helpers, and welders.
We routinely work around hazards that our counterparts elsewhere never or rarely face: radioactivity, biohazards, high explosives, and contamination from beryllium, lead, depleted uranium, asbestos and heavy metals.
Since LLNL privatized in 2007, we have seen our ranks drop by approximately 50% as the newly--‐formed company LLNS attempted to impress DOE and win $ millions in management incentives by cutting, among other things, the maintenance budget, deliberately allowing the Lab’s infrastructure to fall into disrepair. Management’s new motto was ”Run to Fail, then Maintain”
This misguided policy has led directly to several safety incidents and many more close calls. Accidents and faulty equipment affect all Lab employees and could also endanger the surrounding community.
“Running to fail” makes no business sense either; repairs are more expensive and more disruptive to Lab operations than preventive maintenance to equipment and facilities.
We are dedicated and responsible employees who take pride in being part of the history and heritage of the Laboratory. Without us, the Lab could not function. We see the Lab’s accomplishments as ours too.
In recent years we have seen our wages lag behind prevailing wages in our crafts. We want our new contract to close this gap.
We also want an end to the relentless push to do more with less. We have deep pride of ownership of the equipment and facilities that we maintain. Management sometimes exploits that pride to get things done “on a shoestring”. As a result, some of us are overworked.
We want a fair contract and to do our part in restoring the Lab to greatness.
--------------
FWIW These are not the uneducated folks that some of you think they are they are simply the people who decided that their aptitude was more geared to the skilled trades than the higher education think makes you superior.
The poor victim in the above posting, will like any union try to suck the life out of any company.
We all can agree that a non-union contractor can do the same job without all the baby stuff like the baby in chief at "January 21, 2014 at 3:06 PM".
If you read it the above post says everything about the infants.
Let's outsource and soon.
I see some reasonable concerns that all folks at the labs should be concerned about.
We have 7000 non-union (known as merit employees because you are payed on your merit not the same as a lazy union protected employee) workers and I would say the skill level of those 7000 merit employees is pretty good.
I would go on further that 94% of employees in California are merit based.
So the white elephant in the room is,
why does a union bring to the table?
The answer is nothing but problems.
Ask Apple who is building their factory in Arizona for only one reason......NO UNION PROBLEMS, PERIOD. There is no other reason.
I'm certainly OK with your willingness to further diminish the middle-class' standing (Heck I've already got mine too) but you should at least try to understand how your desires will negatively impact those behind us.
Then again with a whole political party dedicated to the demise of the middle-class it's no wonder that so many embrace those desires.
January 21, 2014 at 8:06 PM
Your political underpants hanging out just destroyed your seeming attempt at logic. Poor you.
I'd claim that your hate for unions, and the people they represent, has destroyed your attempt at logic too but I haven't seen a whole lot of logic behind the hate.
It's interesting that some allow the Home Depot parking lot folks to work on their giant home equipment.
I might say your political underpants are hanging again....Liberal.
For those of us who do not understand the Liberal union playbook it is like the above post.
In other words when you run out of arguments (because your ideology does not correspond with reality) then call the other side haters :)
I think the union babies lost when they were being "the poor, poor victims" and having a temper tantrum at the West Gate.
Honestly it was hard to watch the drones.
Is there a justification for the desire that we fail at everything beyond the term "hate"?
Is there a better term than "hate" for the dubiously educated and the obviously un-educated’ desire that everyone behind them live a diminished lifestyle than they were afforded simply because they believe that it should be an every man and women for themselves from here on out?
Help me out here because I'm not sure what that term would be.
Knowing that why demonstrate?
I agree that the Lab is far better off to outsource these jobs.
I believe Akima has saved the Lab quite a bit, but i do not know that for sure.
Can the Lab get rid of the crafts workers and use Akima for this?
Let them sit at home and see how they feel about dissing the Lab.
You might have a point if anyone on this thread actually said the things you impute to them. Just another dishonest tactic on your part. Every bit as bad as name calling, just more subtle.
What is dishonest about a fact?
Can a merit (non-union) crafts worker do as good or better than a lazy union worker?
No imputing here.
oh sorry break time. Gotta go for my union break.
January 22, 2014 at 3:04 PM
Yeah, you deserve it after all that effort to create a post that completely obfuscates the point, and again imputes statements to previous posters that they did not make. Try to somehow be honest about your arguments.
The sad thing is, some out there will miss your point. Personally, I think you should be getting hazardous duty pay for working so close to deadly deep fat fryers. Plus an emotional hardship bonus for having to deal with the worst members of the public every minute of every day. Only scumbags and homeless people eat in fast food joints.
the Lab has treated the poor victims so bad:( poor infants....
Poor victims.
Poor babies.
At the new 49er stadium (a union only construction job),
my neighbor works there and said the NFL heard some maybe drinking going on and did a on the spot drug/alcohol test on the union involved.
The test involved over 70 workers.
-34 passed
-6 failed
-30 refused to test and guess what, went back to the union hall to go on another job.
I think this speaks to these modern unions are not the great unions of old but political/corrupt organizations.
True story.
Actually I heard that they are trying to do that.
It doesn't take much "trying." All they have to do is write a check. If you think that's not already happening, you are very naive.
It appears that subservience to corporate desires is more common at the Labs than I would have expected.
I can only assume that that’s a result of being so unskilled that you feel lucky to have a job.
Although I guess it could be a result of being treated so well that you are just showing a high degree of appreciation for your masters.
January 24, 2014 at 10:30 AM
You mean "willingness to do what the people who are paying your salary want you to do"? Geez, what a concept! You do understand that you are working for a corporation, right?
Or that that lack of understanding leaves you, and others, submissive to their demands and abuses.
Oh you forgot to mention only 6% of the symbiotic Corporate/Labor relationship want to be in a union.
Why is that?
I am with the 94% and would not be part of a union. there is a reason people do not want to be part of a union.
Try to figure it out.
January 24, 2014 at 6:35 PM
Your overall point is correct. However, it is a mistake to assume that the 6% of private sector workers who are members of a union WANT to be members of that union. Most of them don't, and resent union dues they pay being used to support political causes they don't agree with.
My neighbor who is a union carpenter all his life has guys doing cocaine on their way to union jobs.
Also everyone knows ex-felons can get union jobs.
That above post is the union line and not the reality at all.
Look try to think for yourself.
"differed" maintenance for all of the buildings has subsequently failed. Now those " blue collar, uneducated" people now have to undergo profit before performance as stressed by upper management which in the long run if the braintrust such as yourselves would know time is money and money is time and when your service department was cut to two or three people to once complete a task that was under budget, time and overall just yearly maintenance, it is pretty hard to continually hear when will this be done, the answer when we receive a work order and when the funding and the staff is available. How dare all of you to note such pathetic comments. The Lab is in a time warp as well as yourselves, trust me if given the proper funding for maintenance the Lab would once be known for its beauty and cutting edge technology. Remember that when you are in the restroom and everything is at your disposal, the buildings and appearance represent you as well.
Your writing is pathetic. You are obviously uneducated and unable to proofread your own writing for spelling and grammar. By the way, most of the commenters here are NOT your "coworkers" but people who think unions have no place in today's workforce that should be based on merit, not seniority or connections. Try "deferred" not "differed" and who knows where you got "minds of the universe"! If you clean the restrooms, you are doing a much less satisfactory job than in the past. I don't notice fewer janitorial staff, just a lot less work being done, and a lot of janitorial staff taking over lunch rooms and conference rooms during the day for coffee and conversation. Sorry, just my observations.
January 26, 2014 at 9:09 AM
Well, I agree with that, but obviously you don't believe it, or you would have progressed further in school.
The WHOLE point is a non-union employee can do all of this work without the downside all unions have.
SO NO 94% of workers are not on board and want most people want nothing to do with a dirty union.
SO outsource these jobs to a non-union contractor and we do not have to see immature high schoolers jumping up and down at the West Gate.
PERIOD.
Are they being told "who to elect"?
What do you see as "corrupt" about this process? :scratch
500 series
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2014/01/500-series.html
Layoffs
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2014/01/blog-post.html
cip?
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2014/01/cip.html
Did management lie?
http://llnlthetruestory.blogspot.com/2014/01/did-management-lie.html
January 27, 2014 at 8:31 AM
Candidates with the most monetary support usually win. The public unions use dues money, involuntarily given by members, to support those candidates they wish to win (usually liberals) so they will have sympathetic (and beholden) officials to negotiate with over their contracts. That's not corrupt?
That's an interesting POV when you consider the already stated point that unions only represent ~6% of our labor force.
I agree that the unions typically donate to (D) candidates but I see that as more about the (D)'s willingness to stand up and fight for the "common man" and the other party pushing their consistent trickle up policies.
And with that it stands to reason that they'd support those who support their members.
Are you under the impression that our elected representatives are negotiating with the Labs union?
Are you under the impression that our elected representatives are negotiating with the Labs union?
January 27, 2014 at 9:57 AM
Re-read the post. The point was about PUBLIC-SECTOR unions, which still represent over 25% of local, state, and federal government workers, and which indeed negotiate with elected officials. That's where the corruption is. Private-sector unions are indeed too tiny to have any effect on anything (except to make their members poor and their officers rich).
So why all of the dislike for the Labs union if they have so little influence beyond their willingness to work together for the job security that so many lack here at the lab?
It's nice to see the 5% increase in "PUBLIC-SECTOR union" membership that happened between January 26, 2014 at 9:02 PM and January 27, 2014 at 11:14 AM
You folks are a hoot...
PS Thanks for ignoring the primary points of my earlier post and focusing on the minutia. lol
You aren't a hoot, just intellectually dishonest. Hallmark of liberalism.
I'm OK with your desire to believe that anyone who disagrees with your desire to diminish the standing of working people, and anyone who asks for your justification for that desire, must be a "liberal".
Actually, I wouldn't have it any other way because it does a great job of showing where your harmful and extremist beliefs reside.
And with that I'm happy to be well away from the ideas that you can't justify.
There's no "intellectual dishonesty" in that because so many of you are on the same page and who knows who said what when you hide behind anonymity.
Like I said I can handle your desire that I be seen as a "liberal" because I certainly reject the "CON"servative extremist beliefs of intolerance, religious extremism, political hypocrisy, corporate subservience, the endless desire for more trickle up economics and your harmful rejection of scientific findings (While seemingly working at a scientific entity)
Just to name a few.
So feel free to distinguish me as someone who doesn't believe the harmful things you folks stand for and I’ll make it a point to point out that folks like you put the “con” in conservative.
I can take it and I can give it.
January 28, 2014 at 8:32 AM
Wow. Good for you. Sterling character description.
I agree.
Should I just roll over to the demands of monied interests like so many in here so willingly do?
Or should I fight for those like me and those behind me in their lives and careers?
You're all free to try to shout me down because you want a select few to dictate the direction of your lives.
I'm simply not willing to go along with your desire.
I'm simply not willing to go along with your desire.
January 28, 2014 at 10:00 AM
All the shouting seems to be coming from you. I seem to remember some shouting at the LLNL gates recently too. In life, people rarely get to decide what they will or won't "go along with," but good luck with that.
I'm OK with your willingness to follow blindly as well as your “I know you are but what am I” form of discussion.
As a matter of fact I wouldn’t expect anything less.
I have control over almost every aspect of my life and so should you.
And with that I don’t have to deal with most of the things I don’t like.
I.e. “extremist beliefs of intolerance, religious extremism, political hypocrisy, corporate subservience, the endless desire for more trickle up economics and your harmful rejection of scientific findings”
So don’t go worrying about me and try to start worrying about the future generations that will be living with the corporate desire, that so many of you embrace, to diminish their futures because you're too weak to fight for what's right and fair.
I’m simply not willing to slam the doors of opportunity and fairness behind me like so many folks are so willing to encourage and all too willing to do.
Reading the above posts makes me wonder how ungrateful people are for our large Corporations and our employment here at the Laboratory.
It is sad to see what is inside (belief system of Entitlement) of a hunk of flesh with a union mentality.
I find it hard to believe a person could possible be mored screwed up.
If I understand this now someone changing light bulbs (admitting that it is not easy in some areas) can make $60 an hour prevailing wage?
I never worry about future generations. They will either get it right or they won't. Not my problem. It's all about personal responsibility, not obligation. Get over yourself."
I'm OK with all of your "screw everyone else because I've got mine" views.
I simply can't live like that because I went to public schools and the military played a part in honing my skills.
So I know that I didn't do it all myself and that most people can’t do it all themselves.
FWIW I consider myself a "conservative" too but I'm not a Cruz, Santorum, Huckabee, Paul, Perry. McConnell, Boehner conservative but more of a Reagan in his attentive day’s type conservative.
PS Every one of us here at these Labs knows a few Ph.D. who don't have a clue so don't pretend that your accomplishment puts you on some higher plane.
January 29, 2014 at 9:34 AM
There you go again.
That was a good comeback...
I seriously laughed when it hit me:)
Based on this blog (in its entirety) 62.7%* of the people here believe that they're lucky to have a job and they want others to feel the same way. And if you don’t feel that way they’ll throw out labels like ungrateful, crybabies, liberals, lazy, druggies, dirty, corrupt, uneducated, etc. with the hope of bringing others down to their level.
I'm fine with their beliefs and they are probably right about their "luck" but some of us actually bring very positive skills to these labs and those skills help the labs not only keep functioning but they save the labs money.
* 92.7% of all stats are pulled out of thin air. lol
January 30, 2014 at 9:32 AM
You keep saying you're "fine" with things you've just spent a lot of time railing about. It's like saying "I hate your guts, but hey, who am I to judge?"
The idea that you think it takes "a lot of time" for me to type my responses tells me a whole lot about you. lol
Perhaps you ARE lucky to have a job.
I get the joke even thought he jokee may not....
I am enjoying this.
January 30, 2014 at 10:21 AM
There you go again.
January 30, 2014 at 10:21 AM
I don't. I'm very comfortably retired. If you do, you are really wasting a lot of your employer's time.
Great...the "does mom know what you are doing?" contingent has arrived.
That's some retirement you've got going on there.
I mean once I retire I certainly plan to spend lots of time discussing these labs.
OK maybe not...