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RE: NY Times - nuke guards swamped by overtime



People, when discussign this topic, it would be

helpful to keep a few things in mind:



1. 12 hour shifts routinely turn into 14 and 15 hour

shifts.  Many guards (and plant workers for that

matter) live 60 to 90 minutes from the plant.  Fifteen

hours spent at work plus an hour to get ready for

work, an hour to drive to work, and an hour to drive

back home gives the person only 6 hours of sleep -

assuming that they don't eat any supper or spend any

time with their family.  At least on a ship/sub, your

bunk is only a few minutes walk away and if it takes

you more than a few minutes to get ready for duty then

you got problems.



2. Being tired is, surprisingly, not cause for being

declared not fit for duty.  If a guard is called in

for duty on his day off and they refuse because they

are too tired, they will get fired.  What choice do

they have but to go in and continue working to help

support their family?  I guess they could say that

they were drinking...on their day off...at 7 AM.



3. People that are in the military sign on knowing

full well that they will have to spend long

deployments away from family - it's part of the job. 

Security guards at a nuke plant never signed up for

only spending a few minutes with their family a day

for months on end.



4. Federalizing security guards is a ridiculous idea. 

If that were to take place, where would...uh, I

dunno...Indian Point get it's force?  The existing

security guards would be a good pool to choose from. 

What difference would it make in the force?  The only

thing that would change is who they get their

paychecks from.



5. Security is not an inherently governmental

function.  The gov't sets the standards that the

guards must meet and those standards will not change

if the gov't becomes their employer.  The people will

remain the same.



6. Many plants are already going through the process

of hiring and training new guards.  It doesn't happen

overnight - it takes time.



Tim



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