PRIVATIZATION DOGMA CONFRONTS REALITY AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LAB

Robert Weissman 
President, Public Citizen

PRIVATIZATION DOGMA CONFRONTS REALITY AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE LAB
Posted: 04/07/2015 5:32 pm EDT Updated: 9 minutes ago


In instance after instance, privatization reduces quality and fails to save money. The cost "savings" achieved through privatization - if any -- simply involve laying off workers (and doing less) or reducing workers' wages and benefits. The Government Accounting Office has found that contractors routinely fail to pay required wages. These aren't the kinds of efficiency gains promised through privatization. And, these "savings" in wages are commonly offset by the profits extracted by corporate privateers.
One apparent case in point is the privatization of management of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area. Long managed by the University of California as part of the nation's nuclear research infrastructure, Livermore had serious management problems, including significant security-related issues. But privatization of the university management arrangement turned out to make things worse, according to numerous published reports.
A consortium headed by Bechtel took over operation of Lawrence Livermore in 2007. Although the Bechtel group had said it would add jobs at Livermore, in fact it slashed them, from 9,400 in 2005 to 6,800 several years after the privatization. Part of the job loss was due to cuts in federal spending on the lab, though funding losses would eventually be restored. The lost jobs were not.
In 2011, the New York Times reported that "Lynda Seaver, a lab spokesperson, said spending on staff and operations had fallen because of a substantial increase in management fees."
Read that again: Spending on staff and operations was reduced to cover management expenses. And that's according to the privatized management!
Indeed, reports are that management costs have drained a couple hundred million dollars -- $40 million a year - from the operations of Lawrence Livermore and of Los Alamos National Laboratory (operated now by the same Bechtel consortium) since privatization.
This exercise in waste and profiteering is not just a rip off of taxpayers. There's accompanying human tragedy, allegedly made far worse by the way in which the Bechtel consortium laid off workers.
A consolidated lawsuit on behalf of 130 employees alleges that Bechtel violated seniority rules at Livermore and engaged in illegal age discrimination in laying off older, more expensive workers. The Bechtel consortium denies the allegations.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-weissman/privatization-dogma-confr_b_7020702.html

Salary facts

"OFCCP Announces Proposed Rule Barring Contractor Pay Secrecy Policies, Retaliation"

"...Sept. 15 — The Labor Department's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs Sept. 15 announced a proposed rule under Executive Order 11,246 that would prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from maintaining pay secrecy policies and from discriminating against employees and applicants who discuss, disclose or inquire about compensation.

“Workers cannot solve a problem unless they are able to identify it,” OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu said in a statement. “And they cannot identify it if they aren't free to talk about it without fear of reprisal.”

According to a notice of proposed rule-making (RIN 1250-AA06) published in the Sept. 17 Federal Register (79 Fed. Reg. 55,712), contractors must incorporate the new nondiscrimination requirement into their employee manuals or handbooks, as well as disseminate it to employees and applicants..."

http://www.bna.com/ofccp-announces-proposed-n17179895170/

http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/PayTransparencyFactSheet.html

Empyrean Customer Care Center for LANL

Finally received my "Empyrean Customer Care Center for LANL" bill for April retiree medical coverage today (April 6th). 

Noticed the bill was made of thin, very cheap quality paper with no easy-tear perforations on the payment invoice (had to use scissors to separate it) and they don't bother to put a return envelope in the letter. Haven't yet tried to login to their web site but others have reported problems.

My impressions of the mail received is one of "cheesy-ness" and corner cutting. Hopefully, the company performs well. We'll see how it all goes from here....

Why can't the ICF program be simply shut down?

I assume that NIF has been unsuccessful in increasing its yield beyond the 26 kJ high-foot results? I haven't seen any news articles after the "break-even" PR campaign. 

Why can't the ICF program be simply shut down? Why do programs such as Omega in Rochester continue as well? Recently I heard that the Z MagLIF (the Sandia version of fusion) results were not very promising after some earlier fanfare.

Yes, there are the usual stockpile stewardship arguments. But ICF is a dud. It probably is the perpetual motion machine of our time.

The Pentagon’s$10-billion bet gone bad

Curious as to how our government wastes hundreds of billions of dollars on silly and unworkable defense systems always trumpeted as being "transformational game changers" but in reality... expensive flops used to enrich the military industrial complex bank accounts? Here's how it's done in this weeks LA Times:

...............................................................
The Pentagon’s$10-billion bet gone bad
graphics.latimes.com/missile-defense/

Where is Empyrean?

As a retiree I RECEIVED MY empyrean letter and tried to get on their web site and did not find it whats up

 Anonymous said...

Try again. I signed up for auto payments ACH and no problem. Website  design is good. Phone service works as well. I like to know why LLNS, LLC decided to put LLNL retirees under Empyrean ? So far as known, rest of LLNL employees remain with Aon Hewitt.

which CPI for TCP1?

Does anybody remember which CPI data is used for calculate the yearly adjustment of LLNL TCP1 pension benefit CPI inflator?

I can't remember if it is the CPI all factors, CPI urban worker wages, or CPI all factors minus food and energy.

It is the average of Feb - Feb annual rate for SFO and Los Angeles urban areas, but I can't remember which measurement.

For LA depending on which one is used, it can be between 0.1 and 1%, for SF it will be between 2% and 3.5% based on recently released data.

So the expected increase in July will be either 1% or 2% depending on which measurement is used.

Anybody have the reference?