The AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions that represents 13 million workers, has unveiled a new web site, America’s Priorities, that criticizes President Bush’s proposed space exploration plan. The centerpiece of the site is a 30-second commercial that starts with a question: “What should America’s priorities be?” The spot then splices sound bites from Bush’s January 14 speech unveiling the plan with people on the street saying things like “jobs”, “health care”, and “help kids go to college.” Only one of these people seems critical of the proposal specifically: “A hundred billion dollars to send a man to Mars?” asks one woman. (At least she didn’t say it would cost a trillion dollars…) It then concludes with a woman saying, “His priorities are in the wrong place.”
There’s very little else on this site dealing with space policy, so it’s unclear whether the AFL-CIO is opposed to the proposed space initiative in particular, or space exploration in general. I’ll hopefully have some more details about this in the next few days.
Putting aside for a minute that the President never said his space plan was a national priority, any space initiative translates into jobs and economic activity. The issue is degree and scope.
Recognizing that the AFL-CIO and other lobbying organizations must twist the facts in order to gain momentum and attract both attention and funds, the organization betrays its paleolithic roots by not embracing new avenues for the workforce. Instead of the same old Hoffa rhetoric, the AFL-CIO should be much more forward thinking, encouraging among other things that workers unite to determine how they can help usher in a new era in the American workforce. For example, the AFL-CIO can support efforts dedicated to establishing businesses that can provide services currently provided by the government. These include, but aren’t limited to, orbital construction, food and water services, terrestrial infrastructure construction and operations supporting space activities, mining (prospecting now, extraction, processing and distribution later), and on and on. These aren’t really exploration missions (which rightly belong to NASA), but rather the day-to-day blue- and white-collar work that must go on for civilization to survive and grow. It should be noted that since the 1950s, the number of white-collar workers have outnumbered blue-collar workers. However, both are necessary as we migrate into space, and one might argue that blue-collar workers will eventually realize a huge growth in numbers as people venture into the Solar System.
Indeed, by focusing on the future (space and other areas), the AFL-CIO may be able to turn around the trend in its membership, which has dropped significantly since the 1970s. Young people, it seems to me, would join if the organization was more contemporary and forward-thinking.