DOE pay raise freeze

[pertle2]

On December 17, 2010, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu notified contractors of a two-year freeze on salary increases for site and facility management contractor employees.  This is in effect for the remainder of FY11 and FY12.

[co60slr]

On December 17, 2010, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu notified contractors of a two-year freeze on salary increases for site and facility management contractor employees.  This is in effect for the remainder of FY11 and FY12.

Mr. Chu was simply a messenger.

http://www.fedsmith.com/article/2674/congress-approves-federal-employee-pay-freeze.html

[stormgoalie]

Will be interesting to see how the unions respond.

[Marlin]

Will be interesting to see how the unions respond.

Word is that it will not affect union/wage earners. If you have manager in your title "No Soup for You".

[stormgoalie]

Word is that it will not affect union/wage earners. If you have manager in your title "No Soup for You".

Sounds like the same thing the Ontario government pulled here, except here they have attempted to get Union wages frozen as well.  Fortunately the arbitrators here are not buying the governments/companies arguments etc. and still providing annual increases.

[CATCH22]

    Can someone tell me how pay relates to work at a DOE site?

[OldHP]

Generally inversely proportional 

[CATCH22]

You are correct, my friend.

[OldHP]

this one's not long for the open forums,...

Too cloose to home? 

[pertle2]

Additional note this does NOT effect CBA at all so in other words does not effect Unions

[pertle2]

Thus the affect of this will cause the effect of more employees going Union

[snowman]

Freezing measly cost of living raises for federal workers not governed by a collective bargaining agreement just to save a few billion dollars is how the geat community organizer is going to pay for trillion dollar after trillion dollar spending bills. Didn't you ever take an economics course? This hopey-changey thing is working out great.

[jowlman]

Sun Dog, you are mistaken. We are talking about the workers, not mid-level managers. I know that here in Nevada, we were told last week that our pay would be frozen. So yes we are talking about how if we were union that we would still get raises. We are HP techs, and technically contractors to the DOE.

[Roll Tide]

On December 17, 2010, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu notified contractors of a two-year freeze on salary increases for site and facility management contractor employees.  This is in effect for the remainder of FY11 and FY12.

I feel your pain. Literally! (TVA)

[shiftman]

I worked at a DOE site for over 20 years before retiring. During that time, I was involved with production, contracting and union issues at the site from both sides of the fence. Here are a few things to remember:

DOE uses an enormous amount of contractors (even in their own administration areas) as such, when gov. salaries were frozen, it was inevitable that it would overflow to contractors as well. My former boss at a small business set aside environmental remediation contractor billed DOE $350.00 an hour to run that job and brought in three cronies from his wife's company to assist him. He also got overtime. He ran the project in the ground and left with a bonus. What DOE contractor senior managers earn would make a good segment on "The fleecing of America".

DOE generally hates the unions, but can't touch them due to current CBA's. Former DOE Secretary Sam Bodman came after them on several issues and was beat down each and every time.

The DOE does not function as a branch of the federal government, they function as an autonomous entity and are basically out of control. They have become so large that they have no management continuity. DOE EM fights with DOE Nuclear who fights with DOE Science and Technonlogy,etc., etc.

I am not saying that the freezes are warranted, what I am saying is that I personally hired 200 hundred stimulus workers that never had any work to do. All at the mandate of DOE.

[Content1]

If they truly freeze the pay, and inflation goes up and it seems to be doing, over time the commercial world will out pay the DOE again causing a slow exodus.  I remember a couple of years ago the DOE sites almost folded.   I wonder now if Obama has ran out the money will the DOE sites will start to wither again, freeze or not.  Will they ever start building nuke plants again, how high must oil go up before they see the wisdom in them.   Either way, unless something changes soon our nation is headed for hard times, the freeze may be the least of our worries.

[retread]

Well, there's always fusion,.....

What a memory Marssim! 

[retread]

Is that anything like a sycophant?

It's back!!

[retread]

What a memory Sundog!

[Bleyse]

I feel your pain. Literally! (TVA)

Kilgore made the announcement a few days ago that TVA would go along with the pay freeze.

http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_191137.asp

However if you look closely, buried in the fifth paragraph is a blurb that the freeze will not affect "represented" employees.  Chalk up a small victory for the union .  I suppose there will still be a 'chilling' effect at the annual wage negotiations 

[Content1]

Let get this straight.   DOE sites have a pay freeze.   Gas up over $4 per gallon.  Deficit at 14 trillion.  Inflation ready to spiral up.  What do they expect up to do, sit there as our wages get less and less.   Will my rent freeze along with it?   Do you have to shift to higher paying jobs?   We are not like the unions in Wisconsin, with someone else paying our medical and  retirement.   Why do they punish the part of the government that is doing something good?

[Sun Dog]

Which is it?  This...

Gas up over $4 per gallon.  Deficit at 14 trillion.  Inflation ready to spiral up.  What do they expect up to do, sit there as our wages get less and less.   

...or this:

with a reviving economy with the Repubs making budget cuts, it will only get better even for people with less education.

[Content1]

You in a boat that is sinking, and although you have thrown the previous first mate overboard (Pelosi), and you part of the crew (Conservatives) are bailing like crazy and decreasing the rate of flooding(the deficit), the Captain is still at the helm aiming for icebergs.  What difference does it make if the economy rises if your economy doesn't (pay freeze).  Yes, things are getting better, no, Captain Nemo is still at the helm.   You can have 2 events at the same time and both statement are true and not be in conflict.  Can you walk and chew gum at the same time?

[shiftman]

If the "DOE does not function as a branch [representative] of the federal government" then why did you hire 200 freeloaders "at the mandate of DOE"?

Because DOE received a couple of BILLION dollars of ARRA funding to accelerate environmental cleanup work at their CERCLA sites. They didn't seek the funding, but gladly accepted the handout. And we did not hire "freeloaders". We hired folks that needed jobs, but we simply did not have the infrastructure in place to effectively use them.

DOE marches to the beat of their own drum and has for several years now.

[Sun Dog]

The DOE does not function as a branch of the federal government,

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government.