Adding insult to injury: Money is gone, and now power is being cut!
The situation for NASA employees in the United States is getting worse.
Reported by Space News on August 30th in the United States.
This change coincides with the U.S. Labor Day (the first Monday of September).
On August 28th, President Trump of the United States signed an executive order,
removing NASA employees from federal labor management protection just before millions of Americans began their Labor Day holiday,
removing the collective bargaining rights of the agency's civilian employees,
on the grounds of national security.
The order affects thousands of engineers, scientists, and technicians at various NASA centers,
and revokes long-standing union rights that protected more than half of the agency's employees.
This move marks the largest rollback of labor protections for NASA employees in history.
The Association of NASA Engineers, Scientists, and Technicians now finds itself unable to legally represent employees in the face of attacks such as project cuts, facility closures, and early resignations.
NASA employees had held a "Moon Day" protest on July 20th to oppose large-scale layoffs and budget cuts.
"This year has been a nightmare, and it's not over yet,"
Mark Gaston Pierce, who was the chairperson of the National Labor Relations Board during the Obama administration, said.
He said, "The issue is what constitutes a national security matter that allows the president to... exclude employees' right to collective bargaining?"
According to the NASA website, about 53% of NASA employees were part of the bargaining unit before this order.
Now, thousands of employees at NASA centers have lost these protections overnight.
Affected federal employees are banned from striking, leaving them with little choice other than advocacy and long, uncertain litigation.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1841918246232131/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author.