Los Alamos team continues transition

The Los Alamos National Security transition team developed and
submitted a basic transition plan to the Department of Energy for
review Friday as part of its process to bring its new management
team into the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The plan outlines the steps the LANS transition team needs to
complete before taking over the lab on June 1.

The team also announced a new group of directors and board of
governors last week. It now plans to finalize a benefits proposal
that will detail the lab employees’ pension fund and send it
to the National Nuclear Security Administration this Wednesday.

“We’re right on track,” said LANS spokeswoman
Sue Kuntz.

LANS, which is headed by the University of California and three
corporate partners, is the new contractor for Los Alamos.

“People are working extremely hard. I am very pleased in
the progress we have made in the three weeks up and running,”
Kuntz said.

Though Kuntz said the transition is “going very
well,” one aspect that has come under fire over the past week
is the employee pension plan. The UC Board of Regents voted last
Wednesday to separate the lab’s pension fund from the
university’s overall retirement fund.

The decision was aimed at smoothing the lab employees’
transition into LANS, said UC President Robert Dynes in a statement
before Wednesday’s vote.

Still, many lab employees are outraged over the
university’s decision because it had promised them their
retirement fund would remain in the UC system.

However, Kuntz said the rest of the transition has been smooth.
The team spent the last three weeks contacting and meeting with the
UC and the National Nuclear Security Administration, which is a
part of the Energy Department, daily to develop the transition
schedule.

For the next five months, the group will focus on the
lab’s “people, places and practices,” said LANS
spokesman Jeff Burger, adding this would include meeting employees,
determining positions for them, and finally reviewing plants,
facilities and procedures at the lab.

“All current employees in lab will have the opportunity to
join our company … at the same salary, but there will be people
who may be working different jobs,” he said.

LANS plans to make job offers to current employees on March
15.

Regarding the selection of the new leadership team, LANS
selected 20 officials to head Los Alamos, 16 of whom were recruited
from outside the lab. The members were chosen before the contract
was awarded to LANS and were designated in the proposal to enter
the competition for the lab.

For this coming week, though, the team plans to focus on
finalizing the employee pension proposal, which the lab’s
contract states must be similar to the current benefits package,
Kuntz said.

“We are working diligently for the benefits package to be
substantially equivalent,” Burger said.

Despite the regents’ decision to separate the lab’s
pension from the UC fund, the employee benefits should remain
substantially similar, said UC spokesman Chris Harrington.

“There will be no benefit reductions, and it will be
managed the same way (the University of California Retirement Plan)
is currently managed,” he said.

Even though the UC has reassured employees that pensions will
not be cut, many are “livid” over what they feel as
UC’s betrayal, said Charles Mansfield, president of the
Laboratory Retiree Group, Inc., after Wednesday’s vote.

“It’s unconscionable because the retirees were
promised that we would be a part of the University of California
retirement plan,” he said.

“This leaves us in a very tenuous situation.”

But Burger said employees will have the chance to review and
express their opinions on the plan by mid-February after it has
been reviewed by the National Nuclear Security Administration.

“I would urge (lab employees) to not worry but rather be
patient for just a bit longer and reserve judgement on the benefits
compensation until they have a chance to review what will be
proposed,” he said.

With reports from Bruin wire services.