NASA Workers Launch Effort to Save Jobs

by James Parks, Feb 27, 2010

Workers, small business owners, elected officials and community activists today launched a national campaign to save as many as 7,000 jobs at NASA and thousands more in central Florida.

The Obama administration, in an effort to balance the federal budget, has proposed outsourcing most of the program that includes lunar landers, moon bases, and the replacement for space shuttle to other governments and private companies.

Such a move would devastate central Florida, which already has been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. Without a new commitment to extend the space program, central Florida stands to lose 7,000 jobs at NASA and another 16,000 public- and private-sector jobs could be jeopardized. Members of several unions work in the program, including Machinists (IAM), Transport Workers (TWU), Electrical Workers (IBEW) and others.

Speaking at a rally in Titusville, Fla., not far from Kennedy Space Center, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a crowd of nearly 2,000:

This is no time to tear out the foundation of this community. At a time when so many Florida breadwinners are out of work or working part time, when over half a million in Florida have lost their homes, does it really make sense to pile on more misery?  

Also speaking at the rally, community and business leaders said the loss of so many jobs at NASA could destroy the local economy, taking revenue away from suppliers and other businesses and shrinking the tax base for critical services such as schools. Also taking part: union leaders such as Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Ed Hill, Machinists General Vice President Bob Martinez and Ironworkers President Joseph Hunt.

Trumka said the budget cuts will also hurt businesses and the nation through the loss of the new technology, research and innovation spawned by the space program.

We don’t need a jobs destruction program here in Florida or anywhere in our country. We need a national jobs creation program that keeps people working and puts people back to work.

“The rally is aimed at getting Washington’s attention on what the impact really is going to be of completely cutting off the funding for the program and shutting it down without any regard for the labor force that’s going to be released,” Dan Raymond, business manager for IBEW Local 2088, told Florida Today newspaper.

At a Senate hearing earlier this week, senators from both sides strongly criticized the plan to end the program.

The nation’s jobs crisis is bringing communities together and helping build coalitions to turn around our economy, Trumka said.

Millions of working families are fed up with handouts to Wall Street and not even a hand-up for Main Street. We’ve had it with politicians who think government should work for the wealthy but not for the people who do the work.

Lew Jamieson, president of IAM Local 2061, agreed, telling the publication Florida Today:

It’s not going to be strictly a union rally. We’re concerned about the community, not just union jobs.

The battle to save jobs in Florida is just part of a national effort to create good jobs across the country, Trumka said. We want to put America back to work, he said:

That’s what we’re fighting for in Florida. That’s what we’re fighting for in Washington. That’s what we’re fighting for in America. And when  we fight together, we will win. 

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