Nearly fatal accident at LANL

Can anyone provide information on the "near fatality" electrical incident at LANL last week? A open junction box with multiple wires bare wires, worker fell 5-feet to the ground on his back, with serious electrical burns on his hand. If the shock wouldn't have cause his death the fall might have. Mark one up for another LANS VPP Star Status safety incident.

echtel-Affiliated Projects Recognized for Highest Levels of Safety Excellence

Bechtel-Affiliated Projects Recognized for Highest Levels of Safety Excellence

RESTON, Va., March 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Bechtel-affiliated teams at the Blue Grass Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant project in Kentucky and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico were recently recognized for excellence in safety with Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) Star Status—the highest honor for worksite-based safety and health systems.

Bechtel and LANS have no dignity for accepting this award after shutting down our Nation's only transuranic waste site, WIPP. 

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bechtel-affiliated-projects-recognized-for-highest-levels-of-safety-excellence-300045545.html

​The fiscal threat to nuclear strategy

Adam Mount writes that President Obama "must decide whether he leaves his successor an unstable nuclear force or one that is fiscally sustainable and strategically prudent." 

​ ​

This is Adam's first column for the Bulletin, and it's excellent. I hope you find it of interest.
Best regards,
Janice

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​The fiscal threat to nuclear strategy:​

 

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http://ow.ly/K19uG

-- 

Janice Sinclaire

Internet Outreach Coordinator

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists1155 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL  60637
U.S.A.
T.  773.382.8061
F.  773.980.6932E. 

jsinclaire@thebulletin.org
Skype: janice.sinclaire_bas

Hiring frenzy?

I've heard the reduction in workforce is slowing down, no fear of layoffs, and possibly a hiring frenzy?

Any truth here?

Value Added of SPSE-UPTE

"Why doesn't SPSE-UPTE produce a comprehensive summary of their contributions to Lab employees including non-members, instead of allowing themselves to be marginalized, stigmatized, and deemed obsolete and irrelevant?"


Lab Senior Management may publicly claim to welcome SPSE-UPTE involvement in one forum or another, but privately I suspect SPSE-UPTE is viewed as problematic, being impediments to Management and Staff Relations by challenging departures from policies (employment practices) and eroding employment conditions. 

By not reminding lab employees of their accomplishments in a manner that demonstrates broad relevance to all lab employees, SPSE-UPTE open themselves up to be characterized as on the fringe, with little modern day relevance in the workplace or only of value to a small subset of employees. If they want to grow as an organization, they need to provide clear and concise unequivocal examples of their value added and relevance over the last ~10 years to a wide pool of lab employees.

Human Role at WIPP was being Minimized

Human Role at WIPP was being Minimized

By James Moore, Retired Engineer

Albuquerque Journal, excerpts

PUBLISHED: Friday, February 27, 2015 at 12:02 am

I found Mark Oswald’s article, “WIPP woes due to wrong word?” on the Journal’s front page of Feb. 10 quite interesting.

Unfortunately, I fear it may leave your typical reader inappropriately relieved that we finally have a perfectly reasonable explanation for the radioactive release which occurred at WIPP approximately one year ago. The article did not address the very important follow-up questions that the Los Alamos explanation should generate.

The article was informative on the Los Alamos National Laboratories admitted “mistake,” which ultimately led to the radioactive release incident that occurred at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., approximately one year ago. In the article, the “incident” was reportedly caused when a low level “note taker” failed to recognize the technical difference between the words “inorganic” verses “an organic” absorbent.

Now, the important questions are: (1) How many such “bombs” were constructed and placed into WIPP since August 2012; (2) How can they be safely approached and made safe; and lastly, the most important question, (3) What was the WIPP hazard assessment’s estimated probability of such a perfectly reasonable “human error” leading to a release of radioactivity from WIPP during the next 10,000 years plus?


Now, we see that the cost of recovery from the Los Alamos mistake is estimated at over $500 million and three more years by the Department of Energy. This is the cost of minimizing and ignoring “human behavior issues” because they make it impossible to achieve the desired safety numbers. It would cost less to acknowledge, identify and manage these potential “human error” issues. Doing so would also make the project safer.

James Moore is a retired engineer who lives in Albuquerque.

http://www.abqjournal.com/547124/north/human-role-at-wipp-was-being-minimized.html

Justice for All Requires A Contract for All By SPSE-UPTE Stewards

Justice for All Requires A Contract for All

By SPSE-UPTE Stewards

 

In addition to guaranteed wage increases and the provisions for enhanced safety and job security, the new Skilled Trades employment contract retains an important provision: all the due process rights and the “just cause” standard for discipline that all Lab employees once enjoyed as UC employees prior to the transition to private company management of the Lab in 2007.

 

The consequence of the loss of the “just cause” standard was recently highlighted for us in the decision in a grievance arbitration we handled for a non-skilled trades SPSE-UPTE member. In his written decision in this case the Arbitrator said the following:

 

The problem with those arguments (the union arguments) is that each of them is   applicable only where the standard against which to measure the disputed disciplinary action is ‘just cause’ or a similar standard. While each of these Union-argued elements may well have had varying degrees of merit when measured against the ‘just cause’ standard, and particularly so concerning whether the Laboratory has met all of the requirements for a finding of ‘insubordination’, they are simply not applicable where, as here, the standard which the arbitrator must apply is ‘unlawful discrimination, harassment or retaliation.’ Put simply, there is nothing ‘unlawful’ in the Laboratory’s actions here.

 

Likewise, the concept of progressive discipline argued as not followed by the Union is a concept arising within the above-described ambit of ‘just cause’ or a similar standard. The arbitrator has reviewed pertinent sections of the Laboratory’s Personnel Policies Manual, and can find no mention of that concept in those materials. Were this a ‘just cause’ matter, that element of the Union’s argument might well have at least some merit, in that this Arbitrator has in his prior ‘just cause’ cases generally been an advocate of the positive elements of progressive discipline.

 

In short, for those of us without a union contract that embodies the “just cause” standard, the Laboratory is free to treat us unjustly, as long as the treatment is not demonstrably illegal.

 

Since managers can treat employees unjustly, many will continue to do so, taking full advantage of the extra latitude private sector law gives them in dealing with non-unionized workers. Employees without a union contract have no say in the policies and procedures that govern their working environment, and every change that LLNS management has made to the employee conduct and formal complaint policies has left non-union employees with fewer and fewer ways to challenge unjust treatment.

 

SPSE-UPTE believes that an injustice to one is an injustice to all. The ultimate fix to workplace injustice is for everyone to be covered by a union contract. In the meantime, just being a dues-paying member of SPSE-UPTE, even one who is not covered by a contract, gives you some protection, since all our members have access to trained stewards to help them navigate the Lab’s labyrinthine formal complaint resolution process to address workplace issues. Many members find that this benefit alone is worth the modest price of membership. They understand that it makes no sense to wait until the house is on fire before going out to shop for homeowner’s insurance, and that preserving one’s job is as important as saving one’s house.