Contributed anonymously:
Complaint resolution form in DOC format
From SPSE today...
DEADLINE FAST APPROACHING TO CHALLENGE YOUR LAYOFF --- PLEASE READ THIS
SPSE-UPTE has been gathering demographic information from the Lab employees laid off during the week of May 19th. Reviewing this information and LLNS policy, we believe that most of the people affected have justification to file grievances or discrimination complaints. They are as follows:
1. A formal grievance to LLNS claiming violation of LLNS layoff policy in combination with labor or case law. In determining order of layoff, companies are allowed to make exceptions to inverse seniority and skip over less senior employees only if they possess unique skills or abilities that do not exist elsewhere in the company. Generally, labor boards and the courts have found that instances of skipping should not amount to more than 10% of a workforce. LLNS excluded around 40% of its employees from the layoff pool. This is clearly far more than the law intended.
2. Well over 90% of the employees we contacted or who contacted us were over 40 years old. We believe that the age of the general Lab population is distributed more evenly. A difference in age distribution between the general workforce and the laid off employees would demonstrate a prima facie case for age discrimination. An age discrimination complaint can be filed with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
If you wish to file a grievance, you must get a Complaint Resolution Form (CRF) to LLNL's Staff Relations Division no later than June 20, 2008. Attached is an appropriately filled out CRF for the charge we just described. You need only fill in the personal information on the top part of the form, and send it to this address:
Robert Perko
Division Leader, Staff Relations, L-708
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P. O. Box 808
Livermore, CA 94550
Or, you can use this form as a template and craft your own charge with details of your specific situation. In either case, you should file the complaint before the deadline. Even if you are talking to an attorney you should still file the complaint if you believe (as we do) that Laboratory policy was violated. You can always withdraw the grievance later if for any reason you change your mind. You should expect that LLNS will deny the complaint at the initial step. That's normal. When this happens you should ask for independent review by an outside arbitrator rather than by an internal panel. Moreover, at this stage you should seek representation. Do not try to go it alone.
Also, if you are above 40, consider filing an age discrimination complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing in parallel with your grievance. To learn about this, go to:
http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/complaints/Default.aspx?process=employment#main_content_1
Filing with DFEH automatically carries over into a duplicate filing with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The process of filing a grievance or discrimination complaint can be difficult. Moreover, it is beyond SPSE-UPTE's ability to represent every individual who wishes to file. We suggest that if you file a grievance, you also obtain legal advice in the matter before your case reaches the arbitration stage.
We have obtained demographic information from a large fraction of the individuals that were laid off. We have raw data on age, gender, and ethnicity, among other things. We offer this information, along with a list of people who were laid off, for your use in any internal complaint resolution or legal action. Bear in mind that our layoff list is not completely accurate, though it is more than 95% so. It represents our best estimate from sources we had at our disposal. If you or your legal representative believes this information will be useful, please contact SPSE-UPTE at spse@spse.org. We wish you well in asserting you rights.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Society of Professionals, Scientists & Engineers
Local 11 University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA Local 9119
P.O. Box 1066, Livermore, CA 94551
(925) 449-4846 voice
(925) 449-4851 fax
Office Hours: Mon. - Fri. 8am to Noon
Monday, June 30, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
What did not they mention this?
Anonymously contributed:
How come you didn't hear anything about this at Ed Moses all hands meeting today and did you notice that George hasn't said a word either?
Full article
How come you didn't hear anything about this at Ed Moses all hands meeting today and did you notice that George hasn't said a word either?
Full article
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Layoffs of Scientists at Lawrence Livermore Lab Hurt Morale, Report Says
From a blog called the "Chronicle of higher education"
More important than the article itself are the comments that follow.
Article
More important than the article itself are the comments that follow.
Article
Monday, June 23, 2008
So, have you been beat into submission?
Well, if people actually respond to this post, I'll try to convince Scooby that this BLOG deserves to survive. Ok, that's not exactly true, but is one of the facts. Me, I've mostly been beat into submission. I guess that I'm just so tired of the BS that we've put up with for so long. Georgie really does not have a clue as to what is actually going on, and really never should have been put in a ULM position (don't get me wrong, he's a GREAT physicistst, but a lously manager. In-so-far-as our current management goes, they're going to have to kill or at least seriously hurt someone before they realize what they are doing - but no one will admit to that (dead or not). Yes, I'm VERY happy that I still have a job. This BLOG is our only outlet - please support it. It is Scooby's BLOG and we need to support him/her. I'm sure that ULM does look at this BLOG and you as the reader have a chance to post with no worries about reprucussions. We will protect your anonimity - we won't evne publish your IP adress unlike the LANL BLOG - we just want to share very inportant information.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
How Valuable Are You To LLNS
The good news is LLNS or ULM is looking at people SKA's and overall performance in conjunction with the needs of the company. This to me means those who are marginal or worse will be gone very shortly probally starting on Oct 1st, 2009. This may or may not be the case with all of those who got laid off, however I suspect those who were very good employees like the ones I know who did get laid off simply meant they were in jobs that LLNS has no intention of ever supporting or they were jobs LLNS has intentions of out-sourcing on an AS NEEDED contract basis. Yes, this means there will be more cleaning of the house which consequently means more people will lose their jobs over the next 18 months.
Take a look at yourself and ask yourself a question. Am I in a service oriented organization whose job could be done by a firm outside LLNL on a contact basis or via the Internet. If the answer is yes, I'd be real worried. People who are in business services, gardeners, custodians, procurement, plant engineering of any type, external security, or most any job that could be out-sourced need to be worried.
LLNS is just another General Motors who as of today just shut down an assembly plant and sent all the work to Mexico. Yes, that cost all those people their jobs, but did GM worry about that or even care? No. They are in the business of making money and they take their business where it's the cheapest to get the job done, and where they have no long term obligation of pension, 401k , health care, etc, etc , etc.
None of us have secure "jobs" anymore. We have all been screwed out of what we were to get and the screwing isn't going to stop no matter how many calming speeches we get from ULM. The flood gates are open and people of all types are going to start being sent through those gates at warp speed until we are no better than any mediocre company on the outside of this one square mile fence.
How many of you understand this concept and are willing to work within this parameter? If you're not, you are in a world of crap, because that's the way it's going to be. You'll come to work every day with full intention of doing a good job but at any time within that day you could be gone. All any of us can do is prepare ourselves for termination and have an alternate plan in place so "when" you get axed, you simply hand them your badge, keys, pagers, sign the forms and exit without any remorse, as one of my friends did.
That's how it went down for one supervisor Thursday. They walked into his office,to him his job was no longer needed, asked for his keys, badge and pager and then said sign here. There was no warning, and he was gone in 45 minutes without hitting the processing trailers. He was a supervisor who started at LLNL in 1976 and needed six more years to reach social security benefits age in order to have a good livable income without having to become a K-Mart greeter.
His job came to an end with no warning. He now has barely enough to live on, will have to gather his 401K, 403b, UC-DCP plan into a single fund and start his SEPP to subsidize his "minuscule" UCRP pension check until he's 59.5 years old, where at that time he can select to continue to draw the IRS fixed allocation or start drawing any amount he wished from his defered savings account. Is he mad? Yes, but just maybe over time he'll be glad he no longer has to worry about being fired each and every day.
By the way he was "never" on the EBA list, "never" had any run in with management and "never" was on their radar for any misdoings. He was a hard working dedicated lab employee who went beyond the call of duty everyday to assure LLNL's mission was met.
Did that make any difference? No.
In the end he was deemed "worthless" to the organization and was tossed out the gate like a piece of trash, humiliated and left wondering. IMHO, it's LLNS loss, not his. He will overcome his tramma simply because of his demeanor and self confidence. He, is a man of honor and a patriot, and will be remembered by many for these attributes. LLNS on the otherhand "in this case" will be remembered for their abusiveness, stupidity and tyranny.
The question that remains is this. When it's your turn, will you prevail the agony or vanish into oblivion without a trace. What each and everyone of us must remember is this simply fact. You will be treated no differently, so be prepared.
Take a look at yourself and ask yourself a question. Am I in a service oriented organization whose job could be done by a firm outside LLNL on a contact basis or via the Internet. If the answer is yes, I'd be real worried. People who are in business services, gardeners, custodians, procurement, plant engineering of any type, external security, or most any job that could be out-sourced need to be worried.
LLNS is just another General Motors who as of today just shut down an assembly plant and sent all the work to Mexico. Yes, that cost all those people their jobs, but did GM worry about that or even care? No. They are in the business of making money and they take their business where it's the cheapest to get the job done, and where they have no long term obligation of pension, 401k , health care, etc, etc , etc.
None of us have secure "jobs" anymore. We have all been screwed out of what we were to get and the screwing isn't going to stop no matter how many calming speeches we get from ULM. The flood gates are open and people of all types are going to start being sent through those gates at warp speed until we are no better than any mediocre company on the outside of this one square mile fence.
How many of you understand this concept and are willing to work within this parameter? If you're not, you are in a world of crap, because that's the way it's going to be. You'll come to work every day with full intention of doing a good job but at any time within that day you could be gone. All any of us can do is prepare ourselves for termination and have an alternate plan in place so "when" you get axed, you simply hand them your badge, keys, pagers, sign the forms and exit without any remorse, as one of my friends did.
That's how it went down for one supervisor Thursday. They walked into his office,to him his job was no longer needed, asked for his keys, badge and pager and then said sign here. There was no warning, and he was gone in 45 minutes without hitting the processing trailers. He was a supervisor who started at LLNL in 1976 and needed six more years to reach social security benefits age in order to have a good livable income without having to become a K-Mart greeter.
His job came to an end with no warning. He now has barely enough to live on, will have to gather his 401K, 403b, UC-DCP plan into a single fund and start his SEPP to subsidize his "minuscule" UCRP pension check until he's 59.5 years old, where at that time he can select to continue to draw the IRS fixed allocation or start drawing any amount he wished from his defered savings account. Is he mad? Yes, but just maybe over time he'll be glad he no longer has to worry about being fired each and every day.
By the way he was "never" on the EBA list, "never" had any run in with management and "never" was on their radar for any misdoings. He was a hard working dedicated lab employee who went beyond the call of duty everyday to assure LLNL's mission was met.
Did that make any difference? No.
In the end he was deemed "worthless" to the organization and was tossed out the gate like a piece of trash, humiliated and left wondering. IMHO, it's LLNS loss, not his. He will overcome his tramma simply because of his demeanor and self confidence. He, is a man of honor and a patriot, and will be remembered by many for these attributes. LLNS on the otherhand "in this case" will be remembered for their abusiveness, stupidity and tyranny.
The question that remains is this. When it's your turn, will you prevail the agony or vanish into oblivion without a trace. What each and everyone of us must remember is this simply fact. You will be treated no differently, so be prepared.
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