After a years-long lobbying effort, the Transport Workers Union International successfully fought to restore our Firefighter staffing levels at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. Local 525 and the International led an effort to win jobs back for laid off Firefighters.
“This is a great example of the International and Locals locking arms fighting to protect our members,” said TWU International President John Samuelsen. “Government bureaucrats saw our firefighters in Florida as expendable – and the TWU successfully worked with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to reverse cuts that made space launches less safe and hurt our membership.”
In September, Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-Fla.) informed Local 525 President Kevin Smith that legislative language requiring the Space Force to use firefighter staffing levels set by Congress will lead to at least 10 additional firefighters working at Cape Canaveral and possibly more. The language takes effect on October 1 and gives the Space Force one year to find the funding for additional firefighters. The effort began with former Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) and the legislative language was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025.
“I want to thank our Local 525 members for being so involved in this and the TWU’s Government Affairs Team for their work to get this over the line,” Smith said. “It isn’t easy getting Congress to do anything, but we successfully argued to the House and Senate that reductions in firefighter staffing as Space Force launches ramp up is a major danger for public safety while also hurting our highly-trained members at Local 525.”
The new language prevents Space Force officials from using flawed risk assessments to determine firefighter staffing levels, after an assessment was used in Florida to cut staffing. Instead, the Space Force must follow staffing levels set by Congress. Smith said the language, while immediately helping TWU members in Florida, could lead to higher staffing levels at other Space Force bases across the country.
While the Space Force fight was successful, Smith said conversations are ongoing to restore firefighter staffing levels at nearby Kennedy Space Center in Florida, which is run by NASA. Those staffing levels will need to be addressed in future legislation that funds NASA.
“We have workers on recall that are ready to come back, and this is a big win for us,” Smith said. “We will keep working on the NASA funding to get more firefighters back on the job.”