July 29 News Items

No End to USA Strike in Sight at Spaceport (Source: Florida Today)
In and around tents set up outside the entrance gate to Kennedy Space Center, members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061 sit in defiance of their employer, United Space Alliance. As of today, the union's strike over stalled contract negotiations with the company -- NASA's main space shuttle contractor -- has gone on for 45 days, still with no end in sight. The strike by an estimated 450 to 500 blue-collar workers in the shuttle program has developed into an exercise in labor rights -- and management's ability to adapt to it -- not often seen on the Space Coast.

With the shuttle program scheduled to end in three years, it raises the likelihood of a conflict, as both sides can see a potential end to their income, said a labor expert at Florida International University. United Space Alliance -- a joint venture of aerospace and defense giants Lockheed Martin Corp. and The Boeing Co. -- said it is doing fine without the strikers. A portion of the 570-member union's bargaining unit never joined the strike, and some have crossed the picket lines, while the company has hired 64 replacement workers, and assigned other workers extra duties.