Logistics Workers say "No Deal" to United Space Alliance Contract

Five hundred, sixty-nine workers involved in logistics, warehousing, shipping and receiving, ground systems equipment, facilities maintenance, crane operations and crawler-transporter maintenance are threatening to strike at the Kennedy Space Center. They rejected a contract from the United Space Alliance, the primary contractor who prepares the space shuttles for Launch.

The space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch on Friday at 7:38 pm EDT.  The purpose of the Atlantis mission is to deliver a third pair of solar arrays as well as some construction work on the international space station.

Managers and nonunion workers with some experience or certification in the strikers’ jobs will be asked to fill the vacant positions.

According to Johnny Walker of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 166, that’s a bad idea. Walker says “I would urge NASA to not let the company put them in a bad situation. The guys that operate the crawlers and do the crane work, it takes our guys years to do the certification. It’s not something that they teach somebody for three weeks or a couple of days, and then they walk in and do. That’s dangerous business.”