SPSE-UPTE Working to Reduce the Hardship of Shrinking Take Home Pay for Some in TCP1 Retirement Plan

From SPSE: SPSE-UPTE Working to Reduce the Hardship of Shrinking Take Home Pay for Some in TCP1 Retirement Plan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ By William Smith ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To fund TCP1, those LLNL employees who elected to stay in the TCP1 defined benefit plan that replaced the University of California’s Retirement Plan had their take home pay cut by around 10% in June for most employees. Soon, in 2013, take home pay may be cut by nearly 14%. With medical and other premiums increasing, many employees are looking at reducing contributions to 401(K) retirement plans, cutting entertainment expenses, moving to less expensive quarters, and at least one has quit LLNL to take a better paying job elsewhere. As part of the bargaining to modify the contract between LLNS to negotiate reductions in benefits with the skilled trades bargaining unit, SPSE-UPTE has identified several options for reducing the hardship. These options range from a pay increase of 5% to the reinstallation of progressive benefit rates, where percentage of payroll contributed increases with base pay. At LANS, once pay for the year exceeds the social security base, the deduction for retirement contributions is increased by 2% so that higher earners contribute a higher percentage of their salary to retirement. Although LLNL’s total contributions started late, they now far exceed the contributions of UC for both employee and employer. The LLNS employer contribution for 2012 is about double that of UC’s employer contribution and the LLNS employer contribution is projected to increase the effective cost of TCP1 labor by over 30% in 2013 in comparison to 0% in 2011. Tales of true hardship looming after mandatory contributions to TCP1 begin abound. One woman who has a disabled husband and joined LLNL mid-career will have to cut back on her contributions to her supplemental retirement program. Without supplemental retirement contributions she does not know how she will pay for higher than normal family medical expenses during retirement. SPSE-UPTE is negotiating to reduce hardships resulting from this steep increase in TCP1 pension contributions and working with management to control pension costs to keep LLNL competitive. Your stories of personal hardship or of sponsor concerns with high LLNL overhead costs would help inform the negotiations.

Rumor of layoffs!

Anonymously contributed: layoffs! NIF cut 49 loose with more to go: ULM has been secretly cutting employees loose around the lab. EBAS are next. A high ranking nif employee is headed out the gate.

The NAS Report and UPTE’S Response Rally

From the JULY 2012 SPSE-UPTE Monthly Memo The NAS Report and UPTE’S Response Rally By Jeff Colvin On February 15, 2012 the National Academies (NAS) National Research Council released a congressionally mandated Report on their year-long study of the management of the nation’s national security laboratories: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). The strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) held a hearing on the NAS Report less than 24 hours after it was released. Motivating the study was the 2006-2007 transition of LANL and LLNL to private, for-profit monopoly management by Los Alamos National Security, LLC and Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC. The NAS was charged with studying the effects of the management transitions on the Labs’ scientific and national security missions. The basic conclusions of the NAS Report were that scientific productivity, operational efficiency, and employee morale have all declined since the management transitions; and that the new for-profit, monopoly management structure costs more --- the NAS Report gives a range of numbers between ~$210 Million and more than $300 Million as the added yearly cost. The NAS found that excessive formalities, checklists, and oversight by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have put science at the Labs, and experimental science in particular, in jeopardy. The NAS Report attributes the decline of science at the Labs almost solely to excessive NNSA oversight, and completely misses the connection between excessive oversight and the milestone-driven Performance Bonus Incentive private company management structure. UPTE leaders and members have elaborated our arguments for why the for-profit monopoly management structure is at the root of the Labs’ problems in our written testimony to the HASC Hearing on 16 February. Our testimony can be seen in its entirety here. http://t.ymlp284.net/mhuhafajyuqakaubmafaembes/click.php In our later Response to the NAS Report, which we also submitted to Congress, we argue for de-privatization as the preferred solution to the problems identified in the Report, and even float a suggestion for how to get the de-privatization process started. Our Response can be seen in its entirety here. http://www.upte.org/spse/NASltr2_2012.pdf

82 year old nun infiltrates highest security area of Y-12

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 82 year old nun infiltrates highest security area of Y-12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If this story is true, it will have ramifications across the weapons complex. "Three peace activists -- including an 82-year-old nun -- infiltrated the highest-security area of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in a predawn protest Saturday, reportedly evading guards and cutting through three or four fences in order to spray-paint messages, hang banners and pour human blood at the site where warhead parts are manufactured and the nation's stockpile of bomb-grade uranium is stored. It was an unprecedented security breach at the Oak Ridge plant, which enriched the uranium for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II and continues to be a mainstay of the U.S. nuclear defense program." "Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration at Y-12, declined to discuss details of the early-morning events at the Oak Ridge, but he acknowledged that the unapproved entry into the plant's inner sanctum -- a high-security zone known simply as the Protected Area -- was unprecedented. "There's never been a situation like this before to my knowledge," Wyatt said Saturday afternoon. If unarmed protesters dressed in dark clothing could reach the plant's core during the cover of dark, it raised questions about the plant's security against more menacing intruders." Full story: http://blogs.knoxnews.com/munger/2012/07/wrap-up-on-y-12.htmlFull story

Follow the money!

Anonymously contributed: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Follow the money! What nuclear weapons contractors donate the most to which members of congress? http://www.ciponline.org/images/uploads/publications/Hartung_IPR_0612_NuclearLobbyReport_Final.pdf

GAO: Lab oversight still needed due to the Quintana scandal

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GAO: Lab oversight still needed due to the Quintana scandal The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has also expressed reservations about changing the oversight mechanism at the weapons laboratories. While he declined to comment on the House legislation specifically, Eugene Aloise, GAO natural resources and environment director, told GSN that limiting the Energy Department’s ability to conduct independent oversight of the NNSA sites “just doesn’t make sense.” Between 2000 and 2007 there were more 50 security violations at the facilities, “35 of which severely impacted our national security,” Aloise said, referring to a period that included a 2006 incident in which a Los Alamos employee removed more than 1,000 pages of classified documents from the facility, among other incidents (see GSN, July 16, 2007). “Now things seem to be quiet,” Aloise said. As it is, Aloise said he is concerned the Energy Department’s health and safety office is not independent enough to adequately oversee the NNSA laboratories, and suggested that a hypothetical third entity entirely separate from the department would be a better solution. Having the nuclear agency regulate itself would only make matters worse, he said. http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/critics-look-administration-senate-quash-nnsa-reform-legislation/

Uh - Oh, POGO is back!

Anonymously contributed: Uh - Oh, POGO is back! "One of the nation’s main nuclear weapons labs has sharply underestimated the amount of radiation that could leak from the facility as a result of an earthquake, according to a federal advisory panel. The radiation could be more than four times as intense as the Los Alamos National Laboratory predicted in a safety analysis last year, according to a recent report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board. The New Mexico laboratory’s analysis included “multiple, substantial deficiencies,” wrote Peter S. Winokur, chairman of the advisory board. The higher estimate calls for “additional safety controls” and “prompt action,” he added. The report’s findings raise questions about the safety and reliability of Los Alamos, which says its work includes ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. Analyses like the one in question “are fundamental elements for ensuring safe operations at defense nuclear facilities,” Winokur wrote. The Los Alamos facility is near geologic fault lines that show signs of past quakes, according to a 2007 “seismic hazard analysis” performed for the laboratory. The advisory board’s findings come at a time when nuclear weapons laboratories, which are managed for the government by private contractors, are pushing for greater freedom from oversight. " --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2012/07/by-mia-steinle-one-of-the-nations-main-nuclear-weapons-labs-has-sharply-underestimated-the-amount-of-radiation-that-could.html