Space shuttle program workers walked off the job on Thursday after they failed to reach an agreement with the United Space Alliance. Jesse Russell reports:

By Jesse Russell

United Space Alliance is NASA’s largest contractor at the Kennedy Space Center and those workers, 570 of them, are now off the job. Represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union, the employees are unhappy with company proposals concerning health care and wages. According to the IAM the current Atlantic shuttle mission will not be impacted by the strike as shuttle recovery workers represented by the union will stay on the job until after landing. Meanwhile, the Alliance has said it will bring in nonunion replacement workers if the strike is not resolved soon. IAM Local 1061 President Lew Jaimeson said that when this contract proposal is compared to other contracts in the aerospace industry, Alliance workers are “at the bottom.” He said the union has “given back for nine years” and “enough is enough.”