Contents:
Why SPSE Affiliated with UPTE
In April SPSE members voted overwhelmingly (85% of voters)
to affiliate with the University Professional and Technical Employees
(UPTE), a professional organization that represents salaried computer,
research, technical and health care professionals at UC. Scientists
and engineers around the lab have reacted positively to this affiliation.
We have since added new members.
UPTE's parent organization, Communications Workers of America
(CWA), represents more than 20,000 employees at colleges and universities
nationwide and is one of the largest unions of technical and professional
employees in the United States with nearly 700,000 members. By
being a part of UPTE/CWA, SPSE will have the attention of legislators
and executive branch officials on the state and federal levels.
The SPSE board has negotiated an agreement with UPTE that will
assure that the SPSE membership can determine its own policies.
SPSE members will continue to decide what issues to address in
the future. Furthermore, if the day comes that we get bargaining
rights, SPSE would be a separate bargaining unit independent of
other UPTE members.
For SPSE to continue to be effective it needs to increase membership.
UPTE, which has grown from 0 to 7,000 members over the last decade,
is helping SPSE develop a campaign for recruiting new members.
For more information see our website, the CWA website www.cwa-union.org,
and the UPTE website www.upte.org. / Bill Quirk
SPSE Welcomes Our New Director
After Mike Anastasio was appointed the Lab's new Director recently,
he commented on empowering our employees. SPSE is encouraged to
hear these remarks. We look forward to Anastasio involving the
employees in the decisions affecting their work environment. An
example would be to give employees a voice in developing personnel
policies, such as tackling the ranking system. SPSE welcomes Anastasio
as the Lab's new director and hopes to work with him on employee
issues. / Bill Quirk
EBA Facts Management Never Told Us
Did you know that there is no Lab-wide policy on "employees
between assignments" (EBAs)? Or that you can not be fired
for failing to find an assignment? Would you believe that an employee
might not be an EBA even though her management thinks she is an
EBA? These and other curious facts surfaced at a recent "Meet
and Discuss" session between SPSE members and Staff Relations.
Attempts to obtain written copies of alleged EBA guidelines were
unsuccessful, so, on April 29, 2002, SPSE members J. Colvin, P.
Weidhaas, and R. Yamauchi met with R. Perko and J. Cain of Staff
Relations in the Human Resources Directorate to discuss the EBA
situation. Here we bring our readers five key facts from that
meeting. Further details can be found on our web page www.spse.org.
1) There is no Lab-wide policy on EBAs. There are no departmental
policies, either. Instead EBAs are handled on a case-by-case basis.
While case by case flexibility is necessary, SPSE believes that
the employee should not be threatened with non-existent EBA guidelines.
2) Staff Relations recommends that EBAs should be encouraged to
take on any assignments, temporary or not! This runs counter to
management practice in which EBAs are told not take temporary
assignments. SPSE encourages management to follow Staff Relations
advice: direct EBAs to take temporary assignments in order to
reduce the overhead burden. In addition, the employee continues
to keep their skills up to date.
3) As soon as an EBA finds temporary or permanent full-time work,
and thus no longer charges to a burden (EBA) account, that employee
is not an EBA! Unfortunately, management is not always aware of
this, highlighting the lack of uniformity in treatment that EBAs
receive. 4) EBAs cannot be terminated for failing to find a permanent
assignment. However, they can be terminated if they don't do everything
possible and use all resources at their disposal to find an assignment.
This includes following the instructions laid down in the Letter
of Expectation. SPSE urges any employee who becomes designated
as an EBA and receives such a Letter, to seriously interpret the
Letter and to comply with the stated objectives in order to minimize
further altercations.
5) Staff Relations representative Robert Perko agreed with SPSE
that when management approves an employee's academic plan, then
management should fully honor the commitment by approving the
tuition reimbursement for classes listed on the plan. SPSE applauds
this stance and looks forward to evidence that management will
carry through with their commitment.
Where do we go from here?
As part of SPSE's striving to make our Lab a better place to work,
we encourage management to take a more common-sense approach regarding
the issues facing EBAs. Considering that EBAs are often innocent
victims of organizational changes, instead of threatening EBAs
with termination, management should provide maximum help to these
employees in finding an assignment, gaining new training, and
strengthening skills.
SPSE has attempted to obtain statistics on the number of EBAs
in order to ascertain the extent of the EBA population and, for
example, whether it is growing. Staff Relations apparently has
no records on EBAs. If the Directorates have such information,
we urge them to come forth with the statistics. SPSE will continue
to question the administration on this and other important employee
issues, and we welcome new members to join us in support of this
endeavor. / Pat Weidhaas
CAR Takes EBAs for a Ride
In January 2002, two computer scientists in the Computing Applications
and Research Department (CAR) were ordered to immediately stop
working on their temporary paying assignments (one was full-time
and one was part time), and spend all their time looking for a
permanent job. CAR considered both employees to be EBAs even though
one computer scientist was working on a full-time temporary assignment
for nine months. One was told if he didn't find a job in 30 days,
according to CAR's EBA guideline, termination procedures would
commence. But, there is no CAR EBA guideline, and neither does
the Lab have an EBA guideline (see the above article). It is tough
enough for employees not to have a permanent job. But to yank
them off their jobs and to threaten them with termination, while
citing a non-existent guideline is really taking them for a ride.
/ Sue Koopman
The Wen Ho Lee Forum
This March SPSE hosted A Forum on the Wen Ho Lee Case and its
Aftermath, in order for the audience to ask questions. The three
panelists were Dan Stober (San Jose Mercury News), Ian Hoffman
(Albuquerque Journal), and Professor L. Ling-chi Wang (U.C. Berkeley).
Stober and Hoffman are the authors of A Convenient Spy, an impressively
detailed account of the case. Prof. Wang initiated the boycott
of DOE Lab jobs by Asian-American organizations, sparked by the
harsh treatment of Dr. Lee during his interrogation and imprisonment,
and because of the alleged racial profiling that led to his prosecution.
Even before the end of the trial and the release of Lee on September
13, 2000, the DOE and the three weapons labs were trying to negotiate
an end to the job boycott because it caused such adverse publicity.
SPSE had gone on record as advocating due process and humane treatment
of Lee (see our web site). Some SPSE members became involved in
the campaign to gain freedom for Lee, and made contacts with the
three panelists, who enthusiastically agreed to be the guests
of SPSE for this special event.
The Main Auditorium was nearly full. Stober treated us to pictures
showing key people and evidence in the case. Wang's comments on
his boycott negotiations with the Labs made the front pages of
newspapers and were carried by wire services and internet news
sites the next day. The Lab videotaped the proceedings and made
copies available to SPSE. At the end, audience members had a chance
to have their copies of the Stober/Hoffman book autographed.
The Wen Ho Lee case has taught us that an employee, who gets into
trouble, cannot depend on help from DOE, UC or Lab management.
Even most colleagues will distance themselves. Support will come
from people with a strong sense for fairness and the belief in
being innocent until proven guilty. In the Lee case, SPSE provided
support in the form of a letter to then-Attorney General, Janet
Reno. SPSE's letter represented the only such effort from any
organized group of employees in the weapons labs. Later, when
LANL employees tried to organize during the "missing hard
drives" debacle, UPTE came to the aid of the employees. Recently,
SPSE members voted to affiliate with UPTE. We hope that this merger
of UC labor forces will result in more employees looking out for
each other and standing up for fairness and due process, regardless
of any differences that should be irrelevant to employment: ethnicity
and gender. / Manuel Garcia
[Editor's Note: DOE, UC, and Lab management want us to believe
that racial profiling either never happened or has vanished thanks
to a DOE-mandated "stand-down." Along with racial profiling,
they want us to believe that the final curtain has fallen on the
Lee drama. Recently, a viable candidate for LLNL director had
to retract his candidacy because he had once been a manager in
the organization in which Lee worked. And, a recent congressional
report (the GAO report) found racial and sexual disparities in
employment at the Lab. Wen Ho Lee and all its repercussions are
very much with us today and probably for a long time.]
Health Insurance Update
With the collapse of Pacific Health Care Medical Group in the
Tri-Valley area in 2001 and rising costs nationwide, UC is taking
action. Unfortunately, we can not expect fast action with these
complex issues. UC has put both the UC Care and Core plans out
to bid. The goal is to have the plans updated by January 2003.
LLNL will soon have a Health Care Facilitator on site to minimize
difficulties accessing care. Many of the issues facing UC are
beyond its control. One example is the increasing costs of popular
prescription drugs. Another is hospitals refusing to accept low
reimbursement rates from HMOs, which is why Hill Physicians Medical
Group patients cannot use ValleyCare except in a real emergency.
Many physicians do not want to deal with HMOs: in Livermore, according
to healthnet.com, there are only two internal medicine physicians,
six pediatricians, and no general or family practitioners accepting
new patients. None of the physicians accepting new patients belong
to Bay Valley Medical Group, which is the only group that participates
with ValleyCare. Although new treatments and medicines continue
to appear on the market that save lives and improve the quality
of life, these things cost money and somewhere they have to be
either managed by insurance (i.e. denied) or paid for by someone
(i.e. you or UC). Responding to the rising costs, the California
Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) has reduced plan choices
and increased fees. /
Women's Suit Update
In 1998, former Lab employee, Mary Singleton, and five other female
employees filed a class-action lawsuit against the UC Regents
on behalf of all LLNL female employees. The suit alleges that
LLNL's compensation and promotion systems discriminate against
women. The suit seeks back pay and damages on behalf of the plaintiffs
and members of the class.
In addition, the suit also seeks an injunction requiring the
implementation of a non-discriminatory compensation and promotional
system. The trial is scheduled for February 2003.
By the discovery phase cut-off date of August 5, 2002, all depositions
must be completed. Depositions were delayed several months because
defendant's attorneys refused to produce equity studies carried
out by LLNL's Compensation Division starting in 1993. After losing
on appeal, LLNL produced the studies detailing individual cases
of women whose salaries were lower than would be expected based
on value ranking to the organization and years in field. At this
point depositions were resumed, and more documents have been produced
that show LLNL upper management ignored the problems of gender
inequity even though the Lab's own studies confirmed inequities
in directorates across the Lab.
Recently a notice was sent to all class members informing them
of the lawsuit. At this point class members include "all
current, former and future female employees at the Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory employed in the 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500
series classifications who are or were employed at LLNL at any
time since December 23, 1995, and who are, have been, or may in
the future be adversely affected by discrimination based on gender
in rate of pay and promotional opportunities." A hearing
is scheduled for July 26, 2002 before Judge Sabraw, in Superior
Court of the State of California, to further consider the scope
of the class. At this time, members may chose to be removed from
the class if they so desire.
There are four legal firms representing plaintiffs: Lead Counsel
The Sturdevant Law Firm; Co-Counsels Schneider &
Wallace, Gwilliam, Ivary, Chiosso, Cavalli & Brewer, and Trial
Lawyers for Public Justice.
Gwilliam represents Dee Kotla, a former computer technician
at LLNL, in a wrongful termination case against LLNL. In the decision
handed down in March 2002, the jury awarded Kotla $1-million in
total damages. One of her claims in the case was that LLNL was
motivated to fire her because, on behalf of another colleague,
she testified "what she reasonably and in good faith believed
to be inequality in pay between men and women."
More information on this case is at www.awis.org/magazine.html.
/ Mary Singleton
Plot Your Career at LLNL:
This plot shows "S-curves" of salary distributions for
LLNL scientists and engineers shown from left to right for FYs
99 through 02. We derived the curves by ordering the salaries
(from highest to lowest) of all 200-series employees at the Lab.
The "percentile" for a given salary is the percent of
200-series employees whose salaries are below that salary. Don't
confuse this with "years since BS" percentile figures
used for the maturity curve plots. These data can be used in the
following way: take your salary from each of the 4 years listed,
and plot each on the appropriate curve. By connecting your 4 data
points, you can see the upward or downward trend of your salary
compared to that of all other employees in the 200-series. The
actual numbers used to produce the plots are available to SPSE
members for further analysis.
Nurses Settlement
In May 2002, UC and the California Nurses Association, representing
8,000 UC RN's, reached a historic settlement. Apart from the economic
terms of the settlement, the UC agreed to scrap its "merit"
ranking system and to replace it with a less subjective system
based on experience. / Pat Weidhaas