70 Incumbent Employees Turn Down Job Offers from CNS
Staff Reports
NS&D Monitor
6/20/2014
With less than two weeks to go before the official transition of contractors at Y-12 and Pantex, Consolidated Nuclear Security is going through a series of final readiness reviews in conjunction with the National Nuclear Security Administration Production Office and taking care of a slew of other issues. It appears that the staffing situation at the two nuclear security plants may not yet fully settled either. CNS spokesman Jason Bohne confirmed that about 70 incumbent employees at Y-12 and Pantex turned down job offers from CNS, which takes over management of the sites on July 1. About 50 of the employees who declined offers were at Y-12; the other 20 at Pantex, he said.
Those staff reductions are in addition to the 130 employees who left as part of the earlier Voluntary Separation Program that provided incentives to help trim the staffs at the plants in Oak Ridge, Tenn. and Amarillo, Texas, and prepare for the new combined management strategy. “We expected that many employees would choose other options such as retirement, pursuing other job opportunities, or returning to school full-time (we didn’t require employees to tell us why they declined, and most didn’t),” Bohne said, adding: “It’s to be expected during a time of change. We’re appreciative of those who decided to join us and look forward to working together with them to deliver the mission and build a sustainable future for the sites. For those who chose to move on, through the VSP or by declining our offer, we wish them well and appreciate their contributions.”
The CNS communications chief said the contractor would continue to evaluate what impact the departures may have on the missions at the two sites and “will react appropriately after July 1.” He added: “We are in the process of readiness reviews with the customer now, certifying that we are ready to perform on Day 1.”
Haynes Addresses Employees
CNS President and CEO Jim Haynes has also issued a new message to employees on the contractor’s transition website. “There’s a host of activities happening behind the scenes in Texas and Tennessee as we prepare for day one,” Haynes wrote. “We are now working off final items from our integrated schedule. Our remaining transition deliverables to the customer are in review and production. Readiness reviews have begun at Pantex and Y-12, and we’re putting the finishing touches on the organization charts.” He said those organization charts and other “products” of the contract change would be made available as soon as they are “approved and final.”
Community Plan Coming Together
Bohne is in charge of putting together the contractor’s community commitment plans for both sites, and those plans are to be released on June 30. “The plan is really the strategy of what’s important to us, as a company, and what are the priorities that we want to support,” he said. Bohne declined to discuss specifics of the report, but he said the commitment plans will include not only the relationships with the host cities but the region that surrounds each of the two federal installations.
Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan earlier said the community in East Tennessee wants more than money from CNS: it wanted the management and employees to participate in community affairs. Bohne said CNS intends to do just that. “In some cases, money is what’s needed,” he said. “In other cases, time (and participation) is worth more than money.”
