Les pompiers et ambulanciers de la NASA protestent contre leur baisse de salaire

Ils étaient peu, mais bruyants. Photo : rke

[ Cape Canaveral (FLA), July 13th, 2012, © (rke), english below ] – Décidément, ça va mal du côté de la NASA. Une dizaine de membres du Transport Workers Union représentant les pompiers, les ambulanciers et les vigies du Kennedy Space Center ont protesté mercredi aux alentours de centre spatial, vers la sortie 3 (SR 3), juste en face de l’office des badges de presse. Ils ont voulu attirer l’attention sur la réduction de 20% de leur salaire et le doublement des primes d’assurance, suite au manque de boulot dû à la mise à la retraite des navettes spatiales. Forcément. Moins de fusées, moins de salaire.

Firefighters and paramedics from NASA protest against their pay cut

Undoubtedly. It’s go wrong in NASA. The Transport Workers Union, which represents 90 fire-rescue workers at Kennedy Space Center, has launched an informational picket at the center’s south gate on State Road 3. The picketers want to bring attention to a proposed doubling of insurance premiums and a 20-percent cut in salary and retirement benefits for the firefighters, paramedics and inspectors at KSC. The wages were protected for the first year of the contract, but the government contractor for whom they work has proposed the cuts in a contract that begins in December. That company, G4S Government Solutions, which was formerly known as Wackenhut, began negotiations in March and insisted it could not make a profit without severe wage reductions and insurance premium increases.

“It’s unfair for them to claim, after underbidding their competitors, that they now need to make these cuts in order to make a profit,” said on Florida Today, Kevin Smith, president of Transport Workers Union Local 525, which represents the workers. Susan Pitcher, executive assistant at G4S Government Solutions, said the company could not comment while negotiations are in progress.