Brain Drain' at Los Alamos Lab Endangers National Security

The University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA Local 9119, has filed a lawsuit challenging the actions by the University of California and U.S. Department of Energy that threaten the retirement security of employees of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

The union also warned that the actions are provoking an exodus by workers whose specialized knowledge and skills are vital to America's defense program.

As a result of the privatization of the nuclear weapons research facility, the lab's 10,000 employees have been told they must agree to forfeit any further accrual of their pension in the UC system if they want to keep their jobs with the new company, owned jointly by UC and a group of defense contractors.

This action is causing thousands to leave the research facility, resulting in a "brain drain" that is a real threat to national security, said Manny Trujillo, president of UPTE-Los Alamos National Laboratory. Employees are being forced to either transfer their pension into a fund controlled by the new company — which will provide far less retirement security — or freeze their UC pensions and be punished by being placed in a lesser plan of the new company.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in California, raises possible violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act as well as concerns about UC's fiduciary responsibilities.

Employees at the Los Alamos Lab perform critical and sensitive tasks such as keeping the U.S. nuclear stockpile safe, detecting nuclear threats worldwide and computing for the human genome project.

DOE already has begun the privatization of another nuclear weapons research facility run by the University of California, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, which also employs UPTE-CWA members.