Jul 30, 2008

Win - Win

The following comment came in today on the Deadly Denial post. I wish I knew who to credit because I think the idea is simply brilliant. I forwarded the comment to Terrie Barrie, a national workers' advocate, who also was thrilled with the idea. She asked that I put her in contact with the person who posted this comment or appropriate people from the Directors office, Community Relations or anyone else who could can help to make this happen.

Terrie's email is tbarrie@yahoo.com

Whoever left this comment, thank you!
Read how much documentation was required and how the mountains of documents were "lost". Not all of these workers have our level of education and the ability to read and comprehend the various federal statutes. Hell, I recall several bloggers complaining about the confusion regarding submitting safety and security and QA paperwork with PRs. NOW is our chance to volunteer our acumen and help these workers fill out their paperwork instead of being dismissive. Show a bit of compassion to our fellow man. Not everyone has our advantages. Hey, this would be a great volunteer effort through the community relations office, we all get 80 hours a year to volunteer, and LANS gets the credit. Win Win? How about it Mike A?

13 comments:

Eric said...

Good idea but remember filling out forms is not the same as getting money or other help into the hands of people and their families in a timely manner.

I want there to be a metric on this that rewards the volunteers for getting help to the afflicted not just for filling out forms that may not get acted upon until years from now.

Anyone know how to get action to happen before the afflicted die?

Anonymous said...

How about Community Programs? Kurt Steinhaus
Community Programs Manager
steinhaus@lanl.gov
This is a great idea!!

Anonymous said...

Here's some more information. The lab has another program called Vecinos (neighbors) which is a volunteer program coordinated by the Community Relations Office. Here's contact information:

More information about the Vecinos program is available by writing to vecinos@lanl.gov or by contacting CRO (Community Relations Office) at 5-4400 or the Laboratory Foundation at (505) 753-8890.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the contact information for the various offices that may be interested in volunteering to help the sick workers and most importantly, the survivors.

Eric, the claimants need major reforms to the legislation. The advocates submitted reform proposals a month ago to some members of Congress. If implemented, these reforms should expedite the claims process and truly make it fair and consistent.

Thanks again,

Terrie Barrie
ANWAG/CWP

Anonymous said...

Glad I am out of LANL very soon. My political friends up high have been trying to get me out of here for a while and they warned me personally about the dangers of working at LANL. This is no joke and they are correct. Adios LANL and best of wishes to the people working at LANL. If you all were smart you would get out of here and go live a healty fruitful life elsewhere. LANL is a diseased place to work at literally. I have watched 5 people in the last month getting surgeries for cancer and they don't smoke or do anything but work in this garbage. Glad I have only been here a few years and I will be detoxing my body starting in two weeks. Flush it out of me!!!GLTU all!

Anonymous said...

Could you elaborate on the dangers, 11:19? Thank you.

Anonymous said...

"Could you elaborate on the dangers, 11:19? Thank you.
7/31/08 12:06 PM"

Are you kidding? That's an Earic the Great type question. If you stand in the rain without an umbrella you get wet. If you work with toxins and aren't adequately protected you get exposed. What's more elaboration going to accomplish?

Anonymous said...

If you really cared about your co-workers you'd support unionization. But of course you all are too damn good for that. Well then, deal with the abuse and pretend, after the damage has been done, that you care about your fellow man. Of course we all know you don't.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous at 7/31/08 1:15 PM said...

"If you really cared about your co-workers you'd support unionization."

Sure, then instead of the greedy RECTAL profiteers of LANS our overseers would be racists like Chuck Montonyo.

Anonymous said...

I did not mean that as a (sic) "Earic" question.

It was a serious question.

I was asking what areas the commenter thought the containment was weak. Is it radiation, chemical, respirable powders? Is it a physical hazard at all, or just a stressful environment? Is the problem localized, such as in a particular lab or building, or should I move my family out of town?

He said this suggestion came from "political friends up high". I would assume a worker in a lab would know more about direct physical hazards than a "political friend" unless there was some containment failure that was not widely known. So I assumed it was maybe regarding a political or managerial issue.

Anonymous said...

All the unions want to do is take your money. They are all linked to the mafia and don't do anything for the line worker. I hate union crap and I've been in one for 25 years. Talk about evil.

Anonymous said...

There will never be a union at LANL as long as organizations such as UPTE offer nothing better than their curret slate of officers to lead the union.

Anonymous said...

I just came across your site. I'm also a scientist, but accustomed to writing proposals which are successful only based on relative quality, judged by peer review. An important criterion for success is our history of accomplishment. I've looked at the last 20 years of Los Alamos and see that the success rate, normalized of course, is miserable by several measures and the permanent scientists, in general, are unused to fair competition. Furthermore, big, secret programs have consumed large sums even when they were shown to be near nonsense. How can the lab work its way out of this situation when the cost of doing business is so terrible?