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National Laboratory Scientists Work Smart, Work Union
It’s the stuff of X-Files: studies of radiation poisoning in human beings, military research, and analysis of various scenarios terrorists might unleash in the United States.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about an hour south of San Francisco, also conducts OSHA-approved training programs on topics as diverse as forklift operation, machine guarding, scaffolding and fall protection.
In late April, its 153-member Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers voted to affiliate with the University Professional and Technical Employees. UPTE-CWA Local 9119, represents about 10,000 workers in the University of California system.
“This group really symbolizes CWA’s workforce of highly skilled professionals in the 21st Century,” said Brooks Sunkett, the union’s vice president for Public, Health Care and Education Workers. “It’s the cooperation of our department, the local and District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, that enables us to organize these kinds of workers.”
SPSE was formed in 1973 in response to negative management policies and has continued as an advocacy group, hoping to achieve collective bargaining.
Its credo is reflected in a quote from Albert Einstein, displayed on its website: “I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.”
UPTE-CWA President Jelger Kalmijn attended a SPSE meeting as a guest speaker last spring, and the website touts the expertise of UPTE Organizer Lisa Morowitz and CWA’s extensive experience in advocacy for public workers.
SPSE President Jeff Colvin, a physicist, said the vote to join UPTE/CWA “greatly augments the opportunity for the growth of SPSE.”
Bill Quirk, an SPSE executive board member who is
also a physicist, was the lead advocate for affiliation. “UPTE and its parent organization CWA have excellent access to legislators and executive branch officials on the state and federal level,” he said. “As part of UPTE-CWA, we will have a much greater chance of challenging lab policy because we will have the attention of people lab management must listen to.”
Kalmijn said the scientists’ affiliation opens new doors. “With Lawrence Livermore coming in, UPTE has been able to form a Department of Energy research lab network,” he said, noting that the University of California operates three large energy labs for the DOE.
The local is also organizing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and represents 500 researchers and technical workers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, about an hour south of San Francisco, also conducts OSHA-approved training programs on topics as diverse as forklift operation, machine guarding, scaffolding and fall protection.
In late April, its 153-member Society of Professional Scientists and Engineers voted to affiliate with the University Professional and Technical Employees. UPTE-CWA Local 9119, represents about 10,000 workers in the University of California system.
“This group really symbolizes CWA’s workforce of highly skilled professionals in the 21st Century,” said Brooks Sunkett, the union’s vice president for Public, Health Care and Education Workers. “It’s the cooperation of our department, the local and District 9 Vice President Tony Bixler, that enables us to organize these kinds of workers.”
SPSE was formed in 1973 in response to negative management policies and has continued as an advocacy group, hoping to achieve collective bargaining.
Its credo is reflected in a quote from Albert Einstein, displayed on its website: “I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.”
UPTE-CWA President Jelger Kalmijn attended a SPSE meeting as a guest speaker last spring, and the website touts the expertise of UPTE Organizer Lisa Morowitz and CWA’s extensive experience in advocacy for public workers.
SPSE President Jeff Colvin, a physicist, said the vote to join UPTE/CWA “greatly augments the opportunity for the growth of SPSE.”
Bill Quirk, an SPSE executive board member who is
also a physicist, was the lead advocate for affiliation. “UPTE and its parent organization CWA have excellent access to legislators and executive branch officials on the state and federal level,” he said. “As part of UPTE-CWA, we will have a much greater chance of challenging lab policy because we will have the attention of people lab management must listen to.”
Kalmijn said the scientists’ affiliation opens new doors. “With Lawrence Livermore coming in, UPTE has been able to form a Department of Energy research lab network,” he said, noting that the University of California operates three large energy labs for the DOE.
The local is also organizing at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and represents 500 researchers and technical workers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.