Shuttle strike becomes longest ever at KSC

This report comes from Scott Blake on our business team...

The contract standoff between the Machinists union and NASA contractor United Space Alliance has turned into the union's longest strike ever at Kennedy Space Center.

The strike, which began June 14, has lasted 126 days as of today. That's longer than several Machinists union strikes at the Space Center from the 1970s to the 1990s, according to union officials.

Both sides have not returned to the bargaining table since last month, when a scheduled two-day negotiating session arranged with the help of a federal mediator broke down after one day and the second day was canceled.

Representatives for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 2061 in Cape Canaveral have been in contact again with a federal mediator, in hopes of working toward a contract agreement.

But, so far, no sessions with the company have been scheduled.

Nationwide, the Machinists union has had longer strikes, including one that lasted more than three years, and ended with the union agreeing to a contract, said Bob Wood, the union's Southern Territory communications representative.

In that strike, a number of union workers never returned to their jobs.

In the current Space Center strike, some Local 2061 members also have moved on to other jobs and are not expected to return, Wood said.

Meanwhile, the company — NASA's main space shuttle contractor — is preparing for the launch of shuttle Discovery. There have been no problems with launch preparations because of the strike, United Space Alliance spokeswoman Tracy Yates said.

Roughly 440 members of Local 2061 are on strike, and continue to staff picket lines in shifts around the clock at Space Center entrances.

Local 2061 officials recently traveled to the Washington, D.C., area to meet with federal officials, mediators and top-level machinist union officials about the strike.

At about that time, United Space Alliance began advertising to hire workers to fill the strikers' jobs.

The company already has hired 149 subcontractors and enlisted 163 nonunion United Space Alliance employees to help perform the strikers’ jobs, according to Yates.

"USA is continuing to review and process applications, and we plan to bring on more subcontractors to perform replacement work that is now being done by USA employees," Yates said.

Wood called the company’s hiring plans a "scare tactic" to get Local 2061 to cross picket lines and return to work.