In early August, Susan Bonnett Bourgeois, Louisiana’s top economic development official, met with officials from NASA and Boeing at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans East, where engineers are working on the Artemis rocket program that’s set to send astronauts to the Moon and then Mars in coming decades.
More than 1,000 workers are employed at the 43-acre facility, making it a critical source of jobs in the region. According to Bourgeois, the meeting was productive and the feedback from NASA and Boeing was positive.
Three days later, NASA’s internal watchdog issued a blistering report on the facility, citing dozens of quality problems at the facility that it attributed to “a lack of trained, experienced aerospace workers at Michoud.” The report went on to blame, in part, “Michoud’s geographical location in New Orleans and lower employee compensation” compared to other places.
Bourgeois felt blindsided.
“We had asked really specific questions about anything we should be aware of,” said Bourgeois, who was tapped by Gov. Jeff Landry in January to head Louisiana Economic Development. “Sadly, this was not something we were able to get out in front of. No one told us.”
The SLS intertank assembly is seen during a tour of NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE
Now, Bourgeois, Boeing and the state higher education officials who have a hand in training workers to build the Artemis rocket at Michoud are pushing back against the report — and the suggestion that local employees aren’t up to the job.
They say the report was unfair and that the state’s only aerospace technician training program, which was created specifically for Boeing and NASA at Nunez Community College in Chalmette, is producing a pipeline of qualified technicians.
The issue is larger than just the NASA report, however. The Artemis program at Michoud is touted as one of the bright spots in a local economy that has struggled for decades to diversify, especially into technology and advanced manufacturing. The report from NASA’s watchdog could potentially hamper economic development efforts in the New Orleans area and across the state.
“It is another nugget in the narrative that we are not a good place to do business,” Bourgeois said. “It is not helpful, and it is not fair.”
‘Built with industry partners’
Boeing has been building components of the Artemis program Space Launch System rockets for NASA at Michoud for nearly a decade. An earlier version of the SLS rocket that powered Artemis I was built at Michoud and successfully launched in 2022, traveling 280,000 miles into space without a crew.
The recent report on the program, prepared by NASA’s Office of Inspector General, focuses on the development of the upgraded version of the SLS rocket, which has been beset by delays and cost overruns. It was originally slated to be launched in 2021 and now isn’t expected to be ready until the Artemis IV mission, currently scheduled for 2028.
The vertical assembly center is seen at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Staff photo by Brett Duke, The Times-Picayune)
STAFF PHOTO BY BRETT DUKE
Though the report does not blame workers at Michoud for all the problems, it says issues at the local facility haven’t helped the situation. Specifically, the report cites 71 deficiencies at Michoud from 2021 to 2023, which it said was “a high number…and reflects a recurring and degraded state of product quality control.” It went on to mention “inexperienced technicians” and “inadequate work order planning and supervision.”
The report came as a particular blow to Nunez Chancellor Tina Tinney and her boss, Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. In 2017, Sullivan’s office led a state-funded effort to design the new training program at Nunez for Boeing.
The program kicked off in the fall of 2018 with 30 students. In the years since, nearly 300 have completed the program and roughly half have gone to work at Michoud. Earlier this summer, Tinney received an award from NASA, commending her on the effectiveness of the training program.
“This curriculum was built with our industry partners at the table,” Tinney said. “Boeing told us what they needed. We developed this with them and other industry partners, who vetted the skillsets.”
Proud of our employees
Students in the aerospace technician training program at Nunez’s campus on Paris Road in Chalmette literally learn how to build rocket parts through classroom instruction and training at the Michoud facility. They take courses like physics and chemistry and also learn the kind of specialized welding, wiring and fabrication used in aerospace manufacturing.
“There are literally 134 skills that are required in fabrication,” Tinney said. “It’s a checklist Boeing developed and we’re able to develop 98% of it.”
Dr. Tina Tinney
The program has two fulltime instructors, who both came from industry, and one adjunct, who still works in the field. Students can earn a technician’s certificate after successfully completing 24 credit hours, a technical diploma after 45 credit hours, and an associate’s degree after 60 credit hours.
Sullivan said it’s simply untrue that workers — at least those who have gone through the Nunez program — lack sufficient training to work at Michoud. He said the report points to a bigger problem, namely, that Boeing is not providing enough on-the-job training for new technicians fresh out of community college.
“We get our graduates to a baseline and there is an expectation they will be trained on the job,” Sullivan said. “What you are seeing with this report is a concern by our friends at NASA that Boeing did not provide enough experienced technicians to train our workers.”
Boeing, which previously declined to comment on the report, now says it takes issue with the findings and is preparing a detailed response.
It also defended Nunez and its employees at Michoud.
“We are incredibly proud of our Michoud workforce” and disagree with many of the assertion in the report, “including any suggestion that our Michoud workforce is unqualified,” Boeing officials said in a prepared statement.
The company declined to comment on the report’s assertion that low pay played a role in local workforce issues, except to say that Boeing offers competitive salaries and benefits.
In response to a request for comment, NASA provided its response to the findings in the audit, which includes a plan to require Boeing to implement more rigorous training standards.
Bad place to do business?
From Bourgeois’ perspective, the NASA report makes what is already a tough job that much harder. Since taking office eight months ago, she said her biggest challenge has been trying to counter a pervasive narrative that Louisiana is a bad place to do business.
Secretary Susan Bonnett Bourgeois of the Louisiana Economic Development speaks at theState of Economic development event presented. by St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce and The St. Tammany Farmer at the Covington Country Club on May 8th 2024
PHOTO BY GRANT THERKILDSEN
While some of that narrative is rooted in complaints that businesses have lodged against the state for years, she takes issue with the assertion that Louisiana’s workforce problems are greater than any other states.
“Reputationally, of course, a report like this has an impact,” she said. “But it’s not true. I get positive feedback about the quality of our workforce all the time. It’s real. It’s tangible.”
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Publish date : 2024-08-25 04:00:00
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