Tuesday, March 4, 1997
Jury qualification began Monday in Albuquerque for the first five cases in the reduction-in-force lawsuit brought against the Lab by 102 former employees. More than 100 potential jurors completed standard and supplemental questionnaires. The Lab's legal team and plaintiff's lawyers may agree on a list of jurors to be dismissed subject to Judge James Hall's approval. The remaining jury pool will be questioned on Tuesday. In a courtroom of about 25 onlookers on Monday, Judge Hall listened to pretrial arguments on the exclusion or admissions of additional evidence. The judge will determine how to proceed with the remaining 97 claims at the conclusion of this first trial, which is expected to last about a month. |
Workforce Productivity Project revisited
Hoping to stay ahead of and mitigate the effects of continued cuts in federal funding, and to increase its scientific product, the Laboratory in 1995 began its Workforce Productivity Project (PDF file).
To accomplish this, the number of support employees not directly involved in scientific research and development had to be reduced, while the number of scientists and technicians doing science needed to increase. The workforce shift, Laboratory Director Sig Hecker said, will ensure the Lab's long-term success, even though in the short-term some hardships resulted.
"The primary aspect is not a downsizing of the Lab," Hecker told employees during a July 1995 colloquium in the Administration Building Auditorium. "What we want to do is increase the scientific productivity of the Lab." (For more of the director on the Workforce Productivity Project go to.)
Employees doing functions such as human resources; financial management; health, safety and regulatory oversight; communications; facility management; and security are considered support employees.
When the Workforce Productivity Project began, the ratio of scientific and technical staff to support staff was 0.94 to 1.
The goal of the workforce productivity initiative was to improve this ratio to 1.1 to 1 in fiscal year 1996 and 1.3 to 1 this fiscal year.
The Lab, in conjunction with the Department of Energy and the University of California, also offered a voluntary separation program in the fall of 1995. The goal of the voluntary separation program was to allow employees in certain skills area to voluntarily leave the Lab in order to reduce the number of employees who would have to be terminated.
Some 250 employees elected to voluntarily leave the Lab in September 1995. Employees were offered a $20,000 minimum separation benefit, up to $10,000 in tuition reimbursement and reimbursement of up to $5,000 for employees who relocate to other DOE sites.
On Sept. 13, 1995, involuntary reduction in force notices were given to 256 UC Lab employees; 195 actually lost their jobs with the remainder finding new jobs around the Lab.
A month later, a number of employees affected by the reduction in force filed a lawsuit in state District Court in Santa Fe asking that the RIF be prevented from being implemented. First Judicial District Court Judge Jim Hall issued a temporary injunction temporarily preventing the Lab from implementing the RIF. The state Supreme Court overturned the injunction, and the effective date of the RIF was Nov. 30, 1995.
After employees who received a reduction in force left the Lab, several of them filed a lawsuit.
Judge Hall later granted a motion by attorneys for the Lab to move the trial to Albuquerque; the trial began Monday.
To help employees affected by the reduction in force, the Lab's Human Resources (HR) Division beefed up the services it offers to employees at its Resource Center at the Canyon Complex -- University of New Mexico's Los Alamos branch has since taken over staffing and operating the resource center. Employees were allowed to check on-line job banks, fax résumés to potential employers locally and around the country and receive counseling and support. Résumé writing, interviewing skills classes also were offered for employees who received a reduction in force notice.
Several sessions also were offered for employees to help them recognize and deal with the effects of losing their jobs. The Lab's Employee Assistance Program located at Technical Area 53 also opened several Saturdays to assist employees experiencing problems stemming from the workforce restructuring effort.
And the Lab, working with area companies, local and state government employment agencies, held two job fairs in Los Alamos for employees to shop their skills to potential employers.
Los Alamos Economic Development Corp. also sponsored three "Life After the Lab" workshops where area companies could meet with employees who received a reduction in force notice to talk about employment possibilities.
--Steve Sandoval
Long-time T Division leader Carson Mark dies
J. Carson Mark, leader of the Laboratory's Theoretical (T) Division
for 26 years, died at a Los Alamos nursing home Sunday. He was 83.
A memorial gathering was planned for Thursday at 4 p.m. at Fuller Lodge, family members said.
Mark, who was born July 6, 1913, in Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, first came to Los Alamos in 1945 as a collaborator on the Manhattan Project. He joined the Laboratory staff permanently in 1946 and became leader of T Division the following year. He remained in that position until his retirement in 1973.
"Carson was one of the original pioneers coming to Los Alamos as part of the British Mission to the Manhattan Project," said Laboratory Director Sig Hecker. "He left a lasting legacy at the Laboratory during his tenure as T Division leader, combining a great love for science with working in the national interest on a variety of weapons systems over the years. We will all miss him greatly."
Mark earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1935 and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Toronto in 1938. He taught math at the University of Manitoba from 1938 to 1943 and was a scientist for the Canadian National Research Council from 1943 to 1945.
At the Laboratory, he was involved in the development of various weapons systems, including thermonuclear bombs. He had a broad range of research interests, including hydrodynamics, neutron physics and transport theory.
Frank Harlow, who joined T Division in 1953 and was appointed by Mark as a group leader in 1959, said Mark enjoyed working in the rapidly growing field of computing.
"Carson personally took a lot of interest in working with computers," Harlow said. "He was right there in the thick of things. He made major contributions to the continuing progress of our nuclear weapons program at that time."
Mark led the division during a period of significant transition, Harlow said. A major part of the weapons program had been in T Division, he said, but by the 1960s, much of the weapons work had been relocated and the division had entered a period of diversification that involved working with outside agencies and private industry.
Mark, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in the 1950s, was actively involved in issues related to disarmament and nonproliferation after his retirement. He also was a consultant to the Laboratory.
He served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards and was a member of the American Mathematical Society and the American Physical Society.
Mark is survived by his wife Kathleen Abbott Mark of Los Alamos; three daughters, Joan Mark Neary of Tesuque, Elizabeth Mark Smith of Davis, Calif., and Mary Ellen Mark of Albuquerque; three sons, Thomas Mark of Newport, Ore., and Graham Mark and Christopher Mark, both of Los Alamos; 13 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
The family requested that in lieu of flowers contributions be made to Los Alamos Visiting Nurse Service.
--John A. Webster
FSS Division recognized for quality efforts
The Laboratory's Facilities, Security and Safeguards (FSS) Division is making significant progress toward becoming a quality organization.
The division recently was recognized by the New Mexico Legislature and Quality New Mexico as a 1996 New Mexico Quality Award Roadrunner-level winner. The Roadrunner award recognizes organizations that have demonstrated significant progress in building sound and notable business processes, and have implemented total quality principles -- a concept of continuously reassessing and redesigning business practices to provide outstanding service to customers.
The division was honored by the Legislature late last month and will receive the Roadrunner award at a New Mexico Quality Conference and Awards Ceremony on Friday in Albuquerque.
"I am proud that our division has been recognized, and I believe FSS has made huge strides in quality," said Bernie van der Hoeven, director of FSS Division. "But while we deserve to celebrate this occasion, it's also important to recognize this award for what it is: a point in time. FSS Division is on a journey. I want to emphasize that it's not the winning of the award that's important; what is important are the things we learn about ourselves as we gather information during the award application process and what we learn about ourselves as we define major improvements that we can make to bring us even closer to our goal of being a premier, world-class provider of facility and security services."
In its quest for quality, FSS Division has recognized its public responsibility for being a corporate citizen of Northern New Mexico. Facility design, construction, maintenance, emergency management and fire protection have been used as opportunities for interacting with surrounding communities. Along these lines, FSS division members have volunteered time and effort to regional activities, including: tutoring and mentoring programs at nearby pueblos and elementary and high schools, participating in the Laboratory Speakers' Bureau to discuss issues of regional concern, and volunteer work in the United Way and service organizations.
In addition, as part of their commitment to quality principles, leaders within the division have developed a leadership hierarchy that provides a system for integrating customer focus and communication. Under the division's leadership framework, communication avenues exist through which division leaders can communicate goals and receive feedback from all employees. Similarly, the division has installed avenues through which customer feedback can be channeled to appropriate employees or division leaders.
Moreover, the division has committed to employee training, education and professional development, has implemented a rating system to track customer satisfaction and division performance, and has developed a strategic plan to help guide the division's quality focus.
FSS Division is responsible for providing maintenance of and modifications to Laboratory facilities and supporting infrastructure; security for the facilities, people, property and special materials; and emergency response at the Laboratory. Laboratory facilities can be found in 50 different work areas that are spread across 43 square miles; the Laboratory has more than 1,800 buildings equaling about seven million square feet of space. The division's annual budget is slightly more than $100 million, about 10 percent of the Laboratory's total annual budget.
-- James E. Rickman
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Jury selection phase begins in RIF trial