FORGIVE  DEBT GIVE THEM SOVERIGNTY 
Puerto Rico Board Agrees to Remove Pension Cuts in Debt Plan

FREE THEM FROM THE CLUTCHES OF VULTURE CAPITALI$TS

Michelle Kaske
Thu., October 14, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- Puerto Rico’s financial oversight board agreed to remove proposed public employee pension cuts from a plan to slash the island’s debt, a major concession aimed at securing lawmakers’ approval for a bond restructuring that will put an end to its more than four-year bankruptcy.

The board included a 8.5% reduction to some pension benefits in the debt adjustment plan that it filed to the bankruptcy court in March. Governor Pedro Pierluisi and island legislators have balked at any pension cuts.

The board’s concession was made to end a clash with lawmakers over legislation authorizing new bonds to replace existing debt, an exchange that will allow the government to cut what it owes to investors. Still, the panel maintains Puerto Rico must freeze the teacher and judges pension systems, a move the island’s Senate is trying to block.

“When the legislature and governor enact acceptable legislation, the oversight board will amend the plan to eliminate cuts to the accrued pensions of retired public employees and current employees of the commonwealth,” David Skeel, the board’s chairman, wrote in a letter dated Thursday to Pierluisi and the island’s legislative leaders.

The board last week warned that it may be forced to withdraw its debt restructuring plan from the court if lawmakers pass legislation that includes Senate amendments that would increase the island’s expenses by tens of billions of dollars. Such a step would put court confirmation of the plan at risk and prolong a bankruptcy that began in May 2017.

“While the oversight board continues to have reservations about the impact on the plan, it is prepared to accept the wishes of the elected representatives of the residents of Puerto Rico to the extent it can do so prudently and without failing to carry out its duties under Promesa,” Skeel wrote.

The board’s announcement was welcomed by Pierluisi, who said he has consistently fought against pension cuts and is also seeking to protect funding for the island’s university and its municipalities. The board also agreed to such funding.

“We will continue fostering dialogue and working to get out of bankruptcy and respond to the needs of our people,” he said in a statement Thursday.

While the board has agreed to remove pension cuts from the debt plan, U.S. District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain may still require reductions to retirement benefits, according to the letter.

Swain is set to hold confirmation hearings next month on the debt plan, which would restructure $33 billion of debt, including $22 billion of bonds. Island lawmakers are under deadline to pass the legislation authorizing the new restructuring bonds before those hearings.

The board’s willingness to remove the proposed retirement reduction from its debt plan could prompt island lawmakers to approve the necessary legislation.

The board also agreed to Senate amendments allocating $500 million annually for five years to the University of Puerto Rico, increasing municipal funding and spending $1 million for a study on the feasibility of extending medical coverage to uninsured residents, according to the letter.

Alitalia makes final flights but ITA buys the Alitalia brand

Thu., October 14, 2021


ROME (AP) — Italy’s bankrupt national airline, Alitalia, made its final flights Thursday before formally folding, marking the end of business for the 74-year-old carrier and an end of an era for Italy.

A flight attendant at Rome's Fiumicino-Leonardo da Vinci Airport thanked passengers for their loyalty before boarding the noon Flight AZ1581 to Cagliari, Sardinia. The last scheduled Alitalia flight was the return from Cagliari, Flight AZ1586, due to land at 11 p.m. Thursday.

Alitalia, which had operated in the red for more than a decade, will be replaced by a new national carrier, ITA, or Italy Air Transport, which launches Friday with a celebratory aircraft emblazoned with a “Born in 2021" across it, news reports said.

But to most ordinary passengers, little may seemingly have changed overnight: On Thursday, ITA completed negotiations to purchase the Alitalia brand and the Alitalia.com domain, paying 90 million euros for the right to be called Alitalia.

The European Union's executive commission has given the go-ahead to a 1.35 billion-euro ($1.58 billion) injection of government funding into the new airline, but ITA only plans to hire around a quarter of the estimated 10,000 Alitalia employees.

In recent weeks, Alitalia workers staged strikes and protests denouncing their treatment and what for many was just the final episode after years of crises. They cast doubt about the viability of the new airline and said its slimmed-down size, workforce, routes and fleet was presumably aimed at making it attractive for a foreign airline to buy.

Union leader Antonio Amoroso told the Foreign Press Association on Thursday that it was “a failed plan from the industrial point of view that doesn’t serve the country, doesn’t serve the community to which an enormous amount of money is asked, that seriously affects the workers.”

Among its routes, ITA plans to operate flights to New York from Milan and Rome, and to Tokyo, Boston and Miami from Rome. European destinations from Rome and Milan’s Linate airport will also include Paris, London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Geneva.

The Associated Press

 

Northern Ontario town says $500 land listings boosted house prices, drew families

Thu., October 14, 2021, 

A plan that saw a small town in northern Ontario offer vacant lots for as little as $500 has helped revive its economy, officials said Thursday, drawing dozens of families and more than doubling property values.

Smooth Rock Falls launched the revitalization effort in 2017, years after the community was nearly ruined when its main employer -- a pulp mill -- closed its doors in 2006.

The marketing campaign, which saw the community offer vacant lots for as little as $500 in some cases, has led to shifting attitudes -- from "glum" to hopeful, to something even more exciting -- said Luc Denault, Smooth Rock Falls' chief administrative officer.

"We're beyond hope," he said. "We've seen the changes, and what's a great feeling is we're continuing to see it ongoing."

Sixty families have moved to the community since it started offering the incentives in 2017, officials report -- a boon for the town that had a population of 1,330 in 2016, compared to 1,830 in 2001.

Denault said the municipality relies on the census for its population data, so the number hasn't been updated since things started turning around, but less scientific tracking suggests the community has grown.

People are moving to the town an hour north of Timmins from all over the place, he said. Some came from the Greater Toronto Area and elsewhere in southern Ontario, while others came from as far as Newfoundland.

"Interestingly enough, we have former residents who are coming back as well, as they see progress," Denault said. "We're seeing familiar faces."

New businesses are also opening up, he noted. There are new restaurants, an information technology firm and a diesel maintenance and repair company.

Also exciting, Denault said, is the real estate market.

The average property listing is $137,000 this year, compared to $56,065 in 2017 -- an increase of 144 per cent.

Properties are also selling much faster -- sometimes within days.

"When I started 10 years ago, we were tearing buildings down," Denault said. "We are now selling buildings and they're moving very, very quickly."

There are still some of the ultra-cheap plots of land available from four years ago, he noted.

Would-be landowners purchase the land by tender, and receive 90 per cent of the purchase price back if they construct a home on it within two years.

Denault said most people have foregone that option, instead purchasing land with houses already on it.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2021.

The Canadian Press

Review: Medieval and #MeToo clash in 'The Last Duel'

Wed., October 13, 2021


On its mud-and-blood surface, “The Last Duel” seems like a familiar slog.

The film, directed by Ridley Scott, begins with all the expected medieval trappings: gory battlefields, imposing stone castles, the clop of horses. The skies are gray, the terrain muddy and, considering this film is by the director of “Robin Hood,” “Gladiator” and other brawny. masculine historical epics, you think you know exactly what's in store.

But “The Last Duel" may be one of the only films where the director, himself, is kind of a MacGuffin. The movie, written by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Nicole Holofcener, is not the tale of manly valor that it first appears. “The Last Duel” is more like a medieval tale deconstructed, piece by piece, until its heavily armored male characters and the genre's mythologized nobility are unmasked.

The film, framed like “Rashomon," is told in three chapters repeated from different perspectives. The first, which belongs to Jean de Carrouges (Damon), might have once been the sole version of “The Last Duel.” In 14th century France, de Carrouges is a loyal and valiant soldier for King Charles VI (a childish ruler played by Alex Lawther) who weds a nobleman's daughter, Marguerite (Jodie Comer). He finds his agreed upon dowry, including a handsome parcel of Normandy, has been taken instead as a debt collection by the Count Pierre d'Alençon (Affleck). He in turn awards the land to de Carrouges' friend and fellow warrior Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), infuriating de Carrouges. This starts a rift between de Carrouges and Le Gris, as well as with the count, who strongly favors Le Gris. De Carrouges sees himself as a good and brave man, unfairly treated by his superiors. When he returns from a trip, his wife informs him that she was raped by Le Gris while he was away. De Carrouges vows to bring him to justice.

There are hints in even this straightforward first section of something not quite lining up. Firstly, there are those haircuts. Damon sports a mullet and a half-formed beard that seems hardly fashionable in any century, while Affleck has trim blond locks that would be better suited to a boy band. That they look a little foolish may be intentional.

The second section replays the same time period only as according to Le Gris, and “The Last Duel” grows more interesting. Here, we see De Carrouges as an impetuous soldier, an aggrieved complainer and, well, no fun. He fusses and fumes about honor while Le Gris and the count (Affleck in campy splendor) roll their eyes and spend late nights drinking and bedding women. To Le Gris, his act with Marguerite is bold and rough but driven by love, and perhaps mutual longing — though certainly not consensual.

Damon and Affleck, who last together scripted their breakout, “Good Will Hunting," have said they wrote the first two sections, and handed over the third, of Marguerite's account, to Holofcener, the filmmaker of “Enough Said” and “Lovely and Amazing.” The film, adapted from Eric Jager’s 2004 non-fiction book about the true history, has naturally been building to this definitive account.

But it's not just the conclusion to a he-said-she-said drama. The third section is a wholly different perspective on the Middle Ages, as typically seen in film. Comer takes control of the film as it captures Marguerite's experience being wed in a business transaction, the pressure to birth an heir (something that can only happen, she's told, if she also finds pleasure in sex with her husband) and her savvy stewardship of the castle while De Carrouges is away.

Here, “The Last Duel” seems not at all so long ago, at all. Many of the dueling perspectives of the film — slyly self-aware — reverberate with today's #MeToo struggles. It's tempting to think “The Last Duel” should have just been Marguerite's account, but so much of the film's pleasure is seeing Damon, Affleck and Driver — each playing a type, a sort of guy — gradually dismantle and even lampoon their own charms.

"The Last Duel,” a 20th Century Studios release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong violence including sexual assault, sexual content, some graphic nudity, and language. Running time: 152 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

RIP

Climate Science Pioneer 

Geert Jan van Oldenborgh Dies

Eric Roston
Thu., October 14, 2021

Respected Dutch climate scientist Geert Jan van Oldenborgh is pictured. (Photo: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute)

(Bloomberg) -- As heat waves, storms, floods, and droughts intensified over the last several years, so has the ability of scientists to estimate how much likelier or worse climate change made each them. Geert Jan van Oldenborgh, a Dutch climate scientist who was a driving force behind this breakthrough work, died Oct. 12 after an eight-year fight against cancer. He was 59.

Just a decade ago, there was a vast disconnect between a public curious about whether greenhouse gases influenced weather and scientists who scoffed at the question. Attending a meeting in 2012 to develop an EU science proposal, van Oldenborgh told colleagues he thought they should add real-time climate analysis to their priorities list.

“And, as in any good story about a new development in science, everybody laughed at me and said it was impossible,” van Oldenborgh said in an interview last month. “It was completely according to the storyline.”

Scientific interest in extreme-event attribution might not have been new at that time, but the work was still nascent and no one had standardized how to do it yet. On the strength of his research and reputation, the EU ended up allotting him a small amount of funding to see if it was possible.

Van Oldenborgh trained in particle physicists and shifted fields when he joined the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) in the mid-1990s to study the physics of El Nino, the occasional warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that carried global weather consequences. The timing was right. One of the most powerful El Ninos on record helped make 1998 then the hottest year on record. It remains the only year in the 20th century to be included among the 20 hottest years since 1880.

He began publishing climate data and statistical tools to analyze it publicly, on a site called the KNMI Climate Explorer, which over the last two decades has become a critical tool for climate analysis among scientists, students, governments, and private-sector analysts. The project democratized access to climate data around the world. “Which means that in Addis Ababa you can do the exact same analysis on a tiny internet connection that I can do here in the Netherlands,” van Oldenborgh said.

Seven years ago the research nonprofit Climate Central raised funding for a new project called World Weather Attribution, which van Oldenborgh would co-lead with Friederike Otto, then of the University of Oxford. That program pushed the two scientists to accelerate the speed of extreme-event analysis.

Their work turned up all over the recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change science report and launched van Oldenborgh and Otto last month on to Time Magazine's annual list of the world's 100 most influential people.

Otto remembered her colleague’s humility and inclusiveness. “One of the most important lessons I have ever learned in my life is work with the people that are fun to work with,” said Otto, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. “It's the most important thing. You can do good things because you just enjoy doing it. Just don't work with people that are not fun.”

Driving World Weather Attribution is a simple goal, to change the way people talk about extreme weather and climate change.

Heidi Cullen, who worked with van Oldenborgh when she was the chief scientist Climate Central, said that his “integrity and dedication to the science, even while battling cancer, inspired all of us and strengthened our commitment to that goal.” She added: “The scientific community has lost a champion, and I lost a personal hero, but his contributions will never be forgotten as that goal was achieved.”

A consummate scientist and civil servant, van Oldenborgh gave an interview to Bloomberg Green for a recent feature on his and Otto’s work with World Weather Attribution. He said he wished that more time would allow him to “continue this kind of work.”

“I may be old-fashioned,” he said. “But I really appreciate being useful for society and making the world a better place.”

Facebook updates harassment policies, says they better protect journalists from hate

The Canadian Association of Journalists said Facebook Inc.'s recent policy to better protect journalists from harassment is a welcome change, but more work needs to be done by the technology sector at large.

Thu., October 14, 2021, 


The global social network company announced earlier this week that journalists will now be considered "involuntary" public figures rather than just public figures.

Facebook said the designation means journalists will be protected from more forms of harassment, such as calls for death, claims about sexual activity or religious identity and female-gendered curses when used in a derogatory way.

"We ... recognize that becoming a public figure isn’t always a choice, and that this fame can increase the risk of bullying and harassment — particularly if the person comes from an underrepresented community, including women, people of colour or the LGBTQ community," said Antigone Davis, Facebook's global head of safety, in a statement announcing the changes.

"Consistent with the commitments made in our corporate human rights policy, we’ll now offer more protections for public figures like journalists and human rights defenders who have become famous involuntarily or because of their work."

The change comes as a former Facebook data scientist testified to U.S. Congress with accusations that the company consistently pursued profits and engagement over promoting safety.

Facebook has pushed back against the whistleblower's claims.

The policy change also comes after the CAJ condemned a Twitter post by the leader of the People's Party of Canada urging his supporters to "play dirty" with specific journalists who had asked about the party’s ties to the far right.

The CAJ said dozens of reporters were inundated with intimidating emails and social media messages threatening violence, sexual assault and death as a result of the tweet by Maxime Bernier.

Many media organizations, including The Canadian Press, condemned harassment against journalists after the incident.

"A strong, diverse media is vital for a well-informed, democratic society," read the statement, which was signed by dozens of Canadian media organizations.

"While criticism is an integral part of journalism and democracy, there can be no tolerance for hate and harassment of journalists or for incitement of attacks on journalists for doing their jobs."

CAJ president Brent Jolly said Thursday that fixing the issue of hate and harassment on social media will be a "marathon exercise" requiring teamwork from tech giants.

"The issue of online hate and harassment directed toward public figures, which includes many of our member journalists, is a comprehensive social problem that will require co-ordinated efforts on the part of many organizations and institutions to resolve," said Jolly.

"As developments over the last few weeks have laid bare, tech companies such as Facebook have a critical role to play in implementing policies and practices that prevent the free flow of hate and harassment to take place on their platforms."

Davis said working with multiple groups was an important part of developing Facebook's strategy around harassment.

"In updating our policies, we consulted a diverse set of global stakeholders including free speech advocates, human rights experts, women’s safety groups ... female politicians and journalists," said Davis.

"We will continue to work with experts and listen to members of our community to ensure our platforms remain safe."

Jolly said that while Facebook's move is a positive step, many in the industry are also calling for social media networks to improve their responsiveness when attacks do happen.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2021.

The Canadian Press

King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King (1969) 

FULL ALBUM 

Vinyl Rip

Jul 24, 2021
side one:

 21st Century Schizoid Man (including Mirrors) 0:00

I Talk to the Wind 7:22 

Epitaph (including March for No Reason and Tomorrow and Tomorrow) 13:27 

side two: 

Moonchild (including The Dream and The Illusion) 22:21 

The Court of the Crimson King (including The Return of the Fire Witch and The Dance of the Puppets) 34:35

UK extends visas to overseas butchers amid labor shortage


LONDON (AP) — Britain’s government said Thursday it will allow up to 800 more foreign butchers work in the U.K. on temporary visas, after farmers said a labor shortage in meat processing has caused them to cull thousands of healthy pigs.

Earlier, the pork industry warned that up to 150,000 pigs could be destroyed because a lack of abattoir butchers led to a backlog of pigs ready for slaughter, and farmers were struggling to find space for the animals. It said farmers already had to kill over 6,000 healthy pigs.

The Department of Transport said the temporary visas will allow butchers to travel and work in the U.K. for six months. Officials stressed that the measure is not a long-term solution and that businesses need to pay higher wages and invest in better technology and training for domestic workers instead of relying on overseas labor.

The government also said there will be funding for additional meat storage and other measures to support the industry.

Environment Secretary George Eustice said the measures were in response to a “unique range of pressures on the pig sector over the recent months,” including the coronavirus pandemic and the temporary suspension of approval to export to China for some U.K. pork suppliers.

Tom Bradshaw, vice president of the National Farming Union, said the measures were a “step in the right direction.” He added that it was critical to get overseas butchers to the U.K. as soon as possible.

Britain’s government has been facing a wider labor shortage and supply chain problems brought partly by the pandemic and Britain’s exit from the European Union. Brexit ended the right of EU citizens to live and work visa-free in Britain and has left growing gaps in the economy.

A critical shortage of truck drivers recently led to a fuel supply crisis that left pumps across the country empty for days and traffic chaos as long lines formed outside gas stations. The lack of drivers has also led to gaps on supermarket shelves and logjams at container ports. Retailers have warned that there could be a shortage of turkeys and toys at Christmas.

Officials have already announced that they will issue 5,500 temporary visas for poultry workers and another 5,000 for truck drivers in an attempt to stave off a supply crisis in the run-up to Christmas.

Sylvia Hui, The Associated Press

Battle over California fire insurance policies intensifies

US LIBERTARIANS WANT TO REPLACE GOVT WITH INSURANCE CO.'S

Thu., October 14, 2021


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Massive wildfires are making it harder for some California homeowners to get property insurance, pitting the state's insurance commissioner against the industry in an escalating conflict that will likely stretch into 2022's statewide elections.

Private insurance companies often won't sell policies to people who live in wildfire-prone areas because the risk is too great. When this happens, state law requires these companies to pool their money to provide coverage for people who can't buy policies because of where they live.

That pool — the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan — only sells fire insurance, often forcing homeowners to buy a separate policy for things like liability. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, a Democrat, has ordered the pool, also known as the FAIR Plan, to sell more than just fire insurance. He says this will save homeowners the money and hassle of having to buy multiple plans.

But the companies that fund the FAIR Plan say that's not true, arguing Lara's order will increase costs for consumers. They say his order is “illegal” because it would put them in direct competition with the private insurance market. Thursday, they asked a judge to block Lara's order while they appeal a lower court's decision from earlier this year that directed them to comply.

“The FAIR Plan was never meant to compete with traditional insurance carriers that already provide these coverage options," FAIR Plan president Anneliese Jivan said, adding she hopes to “protect consumers from unnecessary rate increases.”

Lara accused the insurance industry of “once again putting its profits ahead of the needs of California consumers.”

“Forcing its policyholders to purchase separate insurance policies for liability and contents, often from the very same insurance companies who dropped their coverage in the first place, only drives up the price for consumers,” said Lara, who will be up for reelection next year. “The FAIR Plan's purpose is to take all comers. I believe it is falling short of its purpose and mission to be there for consumers when they need it most.”

Since 2018, California has had more than 32,700 wildfires that destroyed more than 38,400 structures and burned more than 13,220 square miles (34,239 square kilometers), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. From 2015 to 2019, state data shows insurance companies declined to renew nearly 350,000 policies in areas at high risk for wildfires. That data does not include information on how many people were able to find coverage elsewhere or at what price.

California’s FAIR Plan was established in 1968, one of many such pools that sprung up across the nation following damage from urban uprisings during the civil rights movement. As of 2020, 31 states plus the District of Columbia offer FAIR Plans, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Lara has been trying to get California's FAIR Plan to sell more comprehensive coverage since 2019. Back then, he ordered the pool to sell traditional home insurance policies that cover a range of losses other than fires.

In July, a judge ruled Lara had authority to order the FAIR Plan to sell insurance policies that also covered liability, but only if the liability is related to the property itself. Liability coverage is when someone gets injured on the property and it’s the homeowners’ fault.

The FAIR Plan says even if it starts selling these modified insurance plans, that still won't be enough to cover everything that is included in a traditional homeowner's policy. That means homeowners would still have to buy a second insurance plan for full coverage.

“Commissioner Lara is trying to place an even bigger burden on property owners by forcing the FAIR Plan to provide high-cost comprehensive policies, rather than trusting in Californians to secure the best deal on the coverages they need through available products in the voluntary insurance market,” said Spencer Kook, the FAIR Plan's attorney.

Adam Beam, The Associated Press

REMEMBER PATCO

Chicago Mayor Stands by Vaccine Order Amid Police Union Standoff

Shruti Date Singh
Thu., October 14, 2021



(Bloomberg) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday stood by a mandate requiring city employees to submit their Covid-19 vaccination status by Friday, extending her standoff with the police union head who has told officers not to follow the requirement.

The city is requiring that employees report their vaccination status by Friday and those who don’t will be placed in a non-disciplinary, no-pay status, according to an emailed statement from the mayor’s office on Oct. 8. John Catanzara Jr., the president of Fraternal Order of Police Chicago Lodge #7, has urged members not to report their vaccination status on the city’s employee portal. He said this week that the union was considering legal action to stop the mandate.

Lightfoot, flanked by several leaders of city departments, said during a press conference Thursday that she’s not afraid of lawsuits because the city has the law on its side. She and officials from the police department on Thursday also said they are not concerned about a shortage of police officers or public safety for this weekend following the reporting deadline. The city does have contingency plans and could turn to the state police and other resources if needed, she said. Lightfoot declined to provide further details. Catanzara has suggested that the police department may not be fully staffed given the reporting requirement.

“Our workers are either in communities directly interacting with our residents or helping residents and working alongside their co-workers,” Lightfoot told reporters. “The health of our city workers directly impacts the health of everyone that they interact with, and I believe in leading by example.”

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FOP 

The pushback from the police union comes even after the city extended its vaccination deadline. The clash in Chicago is among several playing out nationally between employers and workers over getting the jabs as well as reporting what some argue is private, medical information.

This vaccine policy is about saving lives, Lightfoot said, noting the efficacy Covid-19 vaccines have shown in preventing hospitalizations and deaths. The city’s vaccination numbers will be released next week.

In August, the city said employees would need to receive a shot by Oct. 15, but last week extended that deadline to Dec. 31 and said regular testing would be required through the end of the year for those who are not vaccinated by Oct. 15. The requirements apply to anyone who doesn’t have a medical or religious exemption. Employees have to do the tests on their own time and at their own expense, according to the city.

The Fraternal Order of Police on its website had provided forms for members to fill out to seek religious, conscientious and medical exemption.

“Hold the line,” Catanzara said in a video posted on the union’s website earlier this week.

Dozens of US nuclear lab workers sue over vaccine mandate

Thu., October 14, 2021



ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Workers at one of the nation’s premier nuclear weapons laboratories face a deadline Friday — be vaccinated or prepare to be fired.

A total of 114 workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — are suing over the mandate, saying exemptions have been unduly denied and their constitutional rights are being violated by Triad National Security LLC, the contractor that runs the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.

It will be up to a state district judge whether to grant an injunction to prevent employees from being fired while the merits of the case are decided. A hearing was underway Thursday.

The lawsuit alleges that lab management has been harassing employees and has created a hostile work environment. The complaint outlines the experiences of many of the workers, including one who was screamed at for not being vaccinated and was told by a fellow crew member that he and his family deserved to die.

The lab has declined to comment on the lawsuit and has not answered questions about the current vaccination rate among employees, whether any exemptions have been approved or what will happen to employees who refuse to be inoculated when Friday rolls around.

The plaintiffs include scientists, nuclear engineers, project managers, research technicians and others who have some of the highest security clearances in the nation for the work they do. Some employees said many of those who could lose their jobs are specialists in their fields and would be difficult to replace in the short term.

Some of the employees who are part of the lawsuit have worked for Los Alamos lab for decades, while others are newer hires who have relocated to New Mexico from other states and countries. Thirty-four of them are named in the lawsuit and 80 have opted to remain anonymous, citing fears of retaliation.

While the lab said last week that more than 96% of workers had at least one shot, it’s not known yet how many have received a second dose. Some workers have estimated that the percentage of those fully vaccinated by Friday will be lower.

Some employees have estimated the lab could lose anywhere from 4% to 10% of the workforce because of the mandate.

“In any organization there are people, not always recognized, who quietly make the work of others possible. Lose them, and you are in trouble,” said Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group, a watchdog group that has been monitoring lab activities for years.

The lab currently employs nearly 14,000 and is among the largest employers in New Mexico. It's also located in a county that is among the most affluent in the U.S. because of its high population of Ph.Ds.

Attorney Jonathan Diener, who is representing the workers in their lawsuit, said the case includes a wealth of scientific information to consider, but he was hopeful the judge would make a decision soon because people's lives stand to be upended.

The lawsuit cites statements made over the last year by top officials in the U.S. and with the World Health Organization in which they noted that there is more to be learned about how the vaccines reduce infection and how effective they are when it comes to preventing infected people from passing it on.

“The fact that the vaccines have only been shown to reduce symptoms of the recipient and not prevent infection or transmission is a fact extremely important to plaintiffs' claims," the lawsuit states.

Since the lab's vaccination rate already is thought to be high, Mello said forcing the few holdouts to get shots would make no epidemiological difference.

“If LANL doesn’t have herd immunity at this point, there is no basis for the mandate. LANL is not being scientific," he said.

Some of the workers have raised similar arguments, saying the high degree of scrutiny that is required of them when working with nuclear weapons or other high-level projects is not being applied on the vaccine front despite the lab's extensive modeling work for the state on spread and other COVID-19 related trends.

Lab Director Thomas Mason has said the pandemic has had a serious impact on the lab, citing higher numbers of COVID-19 cases in unvaccinated employees. However, employees who are pushing back said the cases among the unvaccinated would naturally be higher because the lab had removed vaccinated employees from its regular testing pool.

At Sandia National Laboratories, based in Albuquerque, all employees and subcontractors must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 or file for an exemption by Friday. Lab managers made COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for new hires on Sept. 13.

So far, more than 88% of Sandia employees, interns, post-doctoral staffers and contractors at sites in New Mexico and California are fully vaccinated.

In New Mexico, nearly 72% of people 18 and over are fully vaccinated. That percentage hasn't moved much in recent weeks as more people are pushing back against the vaccines.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press