KSC Fire & Rescue Salaries May Be Cut
Firefighters at Kennedy Space Center protest possible pay cuts, CNN
“Drastic cuts to NASA’s budget are threatening pay and benefits for Kennedy Space Center’s fire and rescue personnel, workers said Thursday, sparking a union protest outside the space center. “We are here today to send a very poignant message to both the company G4S and NASA to keep their hands off what the fireman have already earned,” said Kevin Smith, president of Transport Workers Union Local 525.”
The banner they are holding is both laughable and sad. If the employees have a gripe it is with their with their employer, not NASA. They work for a contractor and what their contractor is doing is happening all across the services industry. Several services contractors are cutting pay and benefits for their employees because there is an ample supply of bodies for the positions available. While they’re at it they might just as well blame NASA for global warming.
Um, no whatagy… NASA very well froze our pension – that we’ve had for 30+ years – at the request of G4S shortly after winning the NASA protective services contract. We definitely have a gripe with NASA. We know very that our employer is G4S. G4S pulled the same bait-and-switch tactics to get the Olympic Games
security contract… bid low, to be sure and get the contract – then cry
poor and take the slap on the wrist for screwing up. They get the
money, but don’t produce what the contract called for. It’s also a bold
face lie on behalf of Mr. Curie (in the CNN article) to say that firefighters which worked
under the previous contract will not lose any benefits… Taking away
our pension and replacing it with a 401k (with a 3% match by G4S) is
ridiculous and does not compare. Doubling our health insurance costs is
a loss of benefits. Taking away our voluntary medical retirement plan
is a loss of benefits. We didn’t want a raise… we only want what we
had. G4S is stealing our future, but NASA should have been able to do the math to know that their bid was so low it was not possible to maintain the contract without drastic cuts. G4S is a corporate bully, but NASA is enabling their position.
Welcome to the 21st century. This is no different than what’s happening elsewhere. If the Space Shuttle is not flying anymore, KSC does not need as many of you as they did before. They could have kept some employees pay and benefits the same AND laid off a few in your shop…. OR, cut everyone’s piece of the pie but keep everyone employed. Which one would you prefer?
I have offered to take a pay cut, as long as everyone gets one.
No one wants to do that.
because everyone believes they are special and indispensable, VonBraun once said when janitorial union threatened strike at MSFC “give me a broom, I’ll sweep my own office”. Unions are getting way too greedy and interfere with business far more than any other entity. I think that NASA freezing your retirement funds is a good move, it prevents G4S from raiding it to cover other expenses and then declaring bancruptcy while you are left without a penny. Besides, NASA/government employees have had their salaries frozen for the last three years or has everyone forgotten that.
Again, your gripe is with G4S, not NASA. If a contractor proposes to NASA that they can supply services at a particular rate I’m at a loss as to how someone thinks NASA should tell them “No, we think you need to pay your employees more.” It doesn’t work that way.
This situation is not unique and is happening with other service providers. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be upset, but be upset with the right folks. I hope you are able to gain some ground with G4S but from what I have seen with other contracts I don’t see it happening.
Good post!
Went thru several of those re-competitions in my career, and lost benefits every time. Change badge, same work, less pay!To say that NASA had nothing to do with it each time is just erroneous and ignorant!
Brian, you of course are in a better position to properly ascertain the contractual relationship between NASA and your employer but if my assumptions are accurate, most of KSC’s services in the post JBOSC/SGS era are small, discrete services RFPs that lend themselves to the letting of FFP contracts. If your successor competition was indeed run this way- as a competitive FFP FAR Part 12 acquisition, then NASA would have had no visibility into discrete cost elements under which cost realism (including fringe benefits) could have been ascertained. If G4S lowballed and then sought equitable adjustment for these costs, the government would have had no way to know it. If your successor contract is a cost-type contract, then I retract the above with my sincerest apologies. If not, sorry for your loss of benefits but to attempt to shift the blame to NASA is disingenuous at best and reflects a complete lack of understanding of the FAR and its NASA corollary.
Duly noted. My assumption that NASA should have known that G4S could not maintain our benefit package was a personal opinion, and perhaps not correct. However, NASA froze our pension, and this was followed by G4S taking it off the table at negotiations and replacing it with a ridiculous 401k plan. My reply to “whatagy’s” post was intended to explain why our picketing signs say, “NASA froze our pension, G4S took it away.” I’ve been a paramedic for over twenty years, and schooled in contracts for about a month. I would be more than happy to get back to the life-saving business, but I’ve found myself fighting for my own life as I watch my retirement die before my very own eyes.
G4S is the same company that is having problems recruiting security guards for the London Olympics.