Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
7/3/2014
Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, LLC, formally took over management of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12 and Pantex production plants this week, and while the workforce at both sites had already undergone trimming during CNS’ four-month transition period, President Jim Haynes said this week that additional reductions could come in the future. Haynes also said, though, that he hopes to avoid any voluntary or involuntary layoffs. “We’ve made a very positive step toward right-sizing the workforce and now we need to get in and just ensure we can safely and securely operate the sites,” Haynes told NS&D Monitor, adding: “In some areas there will be further cuts. In some areas there is going to be recruiting under way. It really comes down to do you have the right mix of critical skills to safely and securely operate the sites.”
The workforce at the plants currently stands at about 7,800, which Haynes said would be a starting point for the new contractor. Haynes said he expected normal attrition and retirements to trim the workforce as needed. He also emphasized that there would be some hiring in certain areas, noting that there is stiff competition from the oil and gas industry for engineers, especially at Pantex. “There will be some further changes, further reductions, over time,” he said. “Hopefully we won’t have to go to another voluntary or involuntary separation program but it will be a dynamic workforce for a while I’ll say.”
‘Slimming’ of Workforce to Happen in ‘Balanced and Phased Way’
During transition, Y-12 and Pantex shed about 130 jobs through a voluntary separation program and another 70 when employees did not accept job offers. “We’re going to get in and assess whether we can safely and securely operate the sites” at the current workforce level of 7,800, Haynes said. “If we find that we can and there are smarter ways to do work we will reassess that number,” he said. “If we can’t operate safely and securely there will probably be areas we need to add some people. If we are successful in consolidating two sites and creating a single management structure then there will be an optimizing, a slimming down, of the workforce over a period of time, but it will be done in a very balanced and phased way taking advantage of attrition to the largest possible degree.”
CNS Confident in $3.27B Cost Savings Plan
With transition complete, Haynes said CNS is focusing on the cost savings initiatives it proposed. He said the number of proposals approved by the NNSA was expanded from 62 to about 80 during transition as some were added others were abandoned, and the contractor is holding to the $3.27 billion cost savings estimate contained in its proposal. About $3 billion of that is cost savings at Y-12 and Pantex, and the remainder is cost savings projected if an option to fold Savannah River tritium operations into the contract is exercised.
Haynes highlighted IT, finance, human resources and program management as areas ripe for cost savings and consolidation. “As we’ve learned more about the sites and where the opportunities are, frankly just some of the initial cost reduction initiatives are not as valid anymore with the passage of time from the time we put the proposal in to the time we are starting today, it’s a long period of time that has allowed some things to change,” Haynes said. “The good news is for NNSA and us as CNS and for the taxpayer we still have a high degree of confidence we can achieve the level of savings we promised in the contract.”
He said staffing levels are a large part of the cost savings proposals, but not the only part. “A part of them is going to be staffing but a significant part of the staffing cost reduction was about getting down to the proposed staffing numbers that we felt we needed to operate the site safely and securely,” he said. “So a lot of that is being done up front.”
