The members of Transport Workers (TWU) Local 525 have a front-row seat to America’s space program. The local represents 1,200 ground crew and emergency support staff of both manned and unmanned rockets on Cape Canaveral. But proposed budget cuts threaten those good union jobs and endanger the space exploration program overall.
In the video above, members of Local 525 tell their story and explain why cutting NASA’s space exploration budget is not a good idea.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and National Education Association (NEA) President Dennis Van Roekel have agreed to extend the NEA/AFL-CIO Labor Solidarity Partnership until June 30, 2010.
As a result of the historic agreement, signed in Feb. 2006, 20 NEA local associations–representing more than 30,000 members in five states and the District of Columbia–have directly affiliated with the AFL-CIO and its state and local bodies. The partnership was to have expired on Dec. 31, 2009.
Across the country, NEA affiliates, state federations and local councils report that the partnership has resulted in mutually beneficial relationships between NEA local associations and local AFL-CIO bodies.
NEA local associations can continue to affiliate with the AFL-CIO and state and local bodies, while the extension provides the time to determine what changes, if any, should be made to the agreement.
The extension also allows the AFL-CIO and the NEA to maintain their intense activity around several serious challenges, including an economic crisis that has resulted in double digit unemployment while state and local governments are grappling with unprecedented budget deficits. Together, the partnership will enable the AFL-CIO and NEA to also work together to push passage of health care reform and the Employee Free Choice Act.
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