Almost 200 Are Laid Off At The Hanford Vitrification Plant (Washington State)

Federal budget cuts were responsible for this mass layoff story. Here is The Bellingham Herald with the details:

Almost 200 construction workers have been laid off recently at the Hanford vitrification plant.

That brings the number of construction workers laid off to about 550 in the past five months.

While there has been some hiring of nonconstruction workers, including engineers and nuclear safety workers, the total employment on the project is now at about 2,725 workers.

That's down from about 3,000 in late January and a typical range of earlier of 3,200 to 3,400 workers, including construction and nonmanual workers.

The most recent round of layoffs was conducted with notices sent at the end of the last work week to 198 construction workers in a variety of crafts. They mostly are related to the Pretreatment and High Level Waste facilities.

"The craft work force is being aligned with current (vit plant) project priorities and resulting work plans," Bechtel National said in a statement.

The Department of Energy has instructed Bechtel National to propose a new baseline, or cost and schedule plan for the plant, based on priorities that start with meeting commitments to the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board to verify technical issues are resolved.

Next would be completing sections of the plant that will not process high-level radioactive waste. That includes the Low Level Waste Facility, the Analytical Laboratory and a group of about 20 support buildings. Construction on those three projects ranges from 63 percent to 78 percent complete.

The remaining resources would be focused first on the High Level Waste Facility and then on the Pretreatment Facility. At the High Level Waste Facility, engineering and construction should be completed as money allows.

At the Pretreatment Facility, Bechtel's instructions include completing engineering and work to reduce risks and technical issues, but construction is not mentioned.

Construction on those two buildings is about 40 percent complete.

In February the Obama administration proposed to Congress that the vit plant receive $690 million in fiscal 2013, down from $740 million this year. DOE plans had called for spending $970 million on the plant in fiscal 2013.

And so it goes.

Sterling Savings Bank (Washington State) Lays Off 160 Employees

Back during the height of financial crash, I used to host a regular Friday afternoon/evening thread on the old Life After the Oil Crash forum called Bank EATED Fridays in which I and other readers would place friendly bets on how many financial institutions the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was going to shut down and take over heading into that weekend. The closings always happened on Friday nights to minimize publicity and thus the resulting harm to public confidence in the banking system, and there were almost always multiple closings every week.

I stopped hosting that regular discussion after LATOC went off the air, mostly because the games being played in the financial system were having the intended side effect of slowing the number of bank failures. If I was still playing that game, however, I think I'd be placing a bet on seeing the Sterling Savings Bank on the FDIC's EATED list in the near future. Here is NWCN.com with the details:

Sterling Savings Bank laid off scores of employees around the Northwest this week.
The Spokane-based bank gave pink slips to 160 employees. Bank leaders said that is six percent of their workforce.

“Given the challenging interest rate environment and the uncertain economic outlook, Sterling must position itself for continued success, including lowering its operating expenses,” CEO of Sterling Financial Corporation Greg Seibly said. “Sterling has fewer assets today than it did just a few years ago and, although this has been a difficult decision, the bank needs to appropriately reflect that reality.”

The layoffs started on Wednesday and spanned across five states.

Managers cut positions at all levels to lower operating costs.

"The bank needs to appropriately reflect...reality." Hmmm...maybe someone should tell that to Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and all of the other "Too Big To Fail" parasites.


Bonus: When people can't earn interest on their money, they have no incentive to save it for later

Heinz Closing Kent (Washington) Food Processing Plant in March

Here's yet another brief plant closing and layoff story from the Seattle Times that tells the real truth about the current economic conditions:

Food-products company H.J. Heinz said Friday it will close its factory in Kent March 30.

The plant, which makes frozen soups for restaurant operators, employs about 100, Heinz said. In a statement, the Pittsburgh-based company attributed the closure to "the difficult conditions in which the company is operating," and said it was part of a plan, announced in November, to shut down three factories.

Heinz did not elaborate. But the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in November that the company's Foodservice division, which includes the Kent plant, has suffered from commodity price increases and lackluster dining-out trends.

There really isn't much I can add to that.


Bonus: Thanks to that damn ketchup commercial, I can't think about Heinz without this song popping into my head

Washington State Laying Off Nearly Half of its Park Rangers

If you are an outdoorsy-type who enjoys visiting parks, I've got some bad news for you. In what will no doubt soon become a national trend, the state of Washington is drastically cutting back on park rangers and other park employees as it struggles to balance its budget. Here is the Olympian with the details:

Pink slips are expected to roll out between Christmas and New Year’s at state parks, where 83 of the state’s 189 full-time rangers stand to lose their current jobs.

To stay on, most would have to take a major pay cut and work as little as five months of the year in one of 63 new seasonal jobs being created. During the cold months, the state’s 116 parks will likely outnumber the rangers who help keep them running.

The scaled-back, seasonal approach is prompted by slow sales of the parking pass for state lands and was signaled by layoff notices earlier this month. The downsizing is proceeding despite a plea from a dozen lawmakers to hold off.

“I appreciate them saying ‘Hey, wait,’ but to me I think it would be irresponsible to wait and spend more money,” said State Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Joe Taller of Olympia, a former legislator and state budget director. He said each month of delay costs $750,000.

Of course, the next step after de-staffing the parks is selling the land altogether to raise revenue. There, I just gave you tomorrow's headline today. You're welcome.