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NASA Workers Launch Effort to Save Jobs

By James Parks

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?

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on February 27, 2010 (boomark / email).