| 19 March 2010
(March 19) State, Congress must increase funds to prep shuttle workers for new jobs.
First comes the earthquake, then comes the tsunami.
That’s what Brevard County is facing as the temblor that is the shuttle program’s end triggers a massive wave of layoffs at Kennedy Space Center that could total 9,000 jobs.
The cuts may begin this summer when about 1,400 workers are let go, with much bigger losses after the last shuttle flight this fall when another 4,000 will get their walking papers.
With more still to come.
The losses and need to retrain workers for new careers that could keep them on the Space Coast or in Central Florida will be among the topics today in a public forum sponsored by FLORIDA TODAY on NASA’s future.
The 3 p.m. session at the Simpkins Fine Arts center on the Brevard Community College Cocoa campus will feature U.S. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Robert Cabana, a former astronaut now serving as director of Kennedy Space Center.
Troubles with retraining were the focus of a meeting earlier this week in Orlando by the Regional Aerospace Workforce Initiative, a seven-county effort tackling the issue of displaced workers.
The news was bleak:
There are far too many workers and far too little retraining money available, with the odds growing that many shuttle engineers and technicians will move to other states to find work.
And rob the region of a uniquely skilled workforce that would further harm the economy.
That’s why the state Legislature and Congress should act quickly to increase retraining funds and get the money into the field to be used.
In Tallahassee, that means approving $3.2 million in retraining funds as part of an expanded package of money to Space Florida, the state’s space-recruiting arm, to help attract new space businesses.
In Washington, that means Nelson and other Florida lawmakers shaking loose $1.24 million in retraining funds that have been locked up for two years and doing everything possible to increase the amount.
President Obama should also promise to hike retraining funds when he comes here for an April 15 conference to discuss his NASA policy.
A story Wednesday in the Orlando Sentinel brought home the issue’s urgency.
It said officials in Orlando’s growing high-technology military training industry, with its emphasis on computer simulation, say they could provide jobs for thousands of the displaced KSC workers because of their technological savvy.
The work, located in the Central Florida Research Park in east Orange County, would provide an easy commute for space workers living in North and Central Brevard.
But Lisa Rice, president of Brevard Workforce, said workers need transitional help to prepare for such new careers, and there’s little assistance around.
“Consider: We’ll probably have at least 9,000 people without jobs if the president’s budget goes as planned,” Rice told the Sentinel. “When you multiply that out, the (training) costs go pretty doggone high — more than $80 million by our estimates.”
To date, her agency has received just a pittance for retraining — $2.6 million, and all of it from the state.
That situation must change fast to provide workers a new lease on life and prevent further damage to the Brevard and Central Florida economies.
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