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Employee Advisory Council marks anniversary

Group works to facilitate communications with management

An 11th anniversary may seem trivial at a Laboratory known for its longevity. For the Employee Advisory Council, however, this month's birthday marks a major milestone.

"Since EAC's charter in February 1994, we have served as a grass-roots communications link between the Lab's management and its UC employees," said Teresa Salazar-Kerstiens of Security Integration (S-2), EAC council chair. "Our 11th birthday coincides with the competition for the Lab's management contract. Especially during this stressful period, we want to reiterate EAC's role as a two-way resource for extended communication and mutual discussion about critically important Labwide issues."

Modeled after the staff assemblies maintained at other UC campuses, EAC fulfills a four-fold mission:

• Foster respect, communication and collaboration between employees and management;
• Promote the interests and well-being of all employees;
• Provide a forum through which employees can furnish feedback, perspective and recommendations to management on existing and proposed Lab policies, practices, operations and procedures; and
• Identify issues of widespread employee concern and communicate those issues and possible solutions to Lab management.

According to Salazar-Kerstiens, EAC's scope is a broad one. "We focus on issues shared by the entire Lab work force, whether that's the contract competition, flexible scheduling, the salary management process, or something else," Salazar-Kerstiens said. "For instance, EAC was instrumental in establishing the Lab's Ombuds Office, and more recently, we provided input to UC's Office of the President on the employee impact of the upcoming contract negotiations. What we don't address are problems specific to a single individual, concerns that an employee union is already handling, or questions that pertain only to [subcontract personnel]. Instead, our emphasis remains on issues of Labwide importance and how they affect the Lab's UC employees and its work force in general."

EAC historian Roger Byrd, of Space Science and Applications (ISR-1), supports that broad focus. "As a veteran of academic environments at Duke and Indiana universities, I've seen how vital it is to maintain a direct channel of communication between staff members and management. In universities, the staff assemblies or faculty senates moderate an interactive dialogue between employees and administrators on issues of common importance; that exchange ensures that neither party acts in a vacuum of information," he said. "EAC's function is similar: it allows the top and bottom of the Lab talk directly to each other and reap the benefits from that unhindered, two-way discussion."

Nancy Kurnath, EAC's vice chair and a Theoretical (T) Division Office employee, concurs. "Aside from the Science and Engineering Advisory Council, EAC is the Lab's only official venue in which employees can voice concerns, ask questions and make their opinions known directly to top management. The Lab faces several tough challenges this year, including the contract competition, and in order to meet those challenges, we must sustain an open dialogue between employees and management. That is why we subscribe to a simple philosophy - the more employees participate, the stronger the council will be, and the better off the Lab will be as a whole," Kurnath said.

Interested in participating? EAC will issue a call for new members in May; until then, any employee holding an L or Q clearance may attend the council's meetings, which occur every two weeks on non-payday Thursdays in the Director's Conference Room in the Administration Building at Technical Area 3. Employees who want to attend an EAC meeting should contact Salazar-Kerstiens at 5-6367, or write to teresa@lanl.gov by electronic mail.

Additional information, including minutes from past meetings and a council membership contact list, can be found on the group's Web site at http://eac.lanl.gov online.

-- Brooke Kent

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