Outsourcing Means a Job Cut for 220 Employees at Fort Meade
About 220 blue-collar federal employees at Fort Meade will lose their jobs because a contractor has won the competition to provide support services at the Maryland base.</br></br>Col. John W. Ives, the base commander, announced the results of an outsourcing study to employees Friday. Ives said he will do all he can "to help in the transition process for our affected employees," according to a statement the Army issued.</br></br>The contract to take on the work of the base's public works and logistics directorates was awarded to Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee, the Army said. The work includes grass cutting, water treatment, road repair, waste disposal and maintenance at the base.</br></br>Several of the employees have worked at the base for 25 years or longer and some began to cry when told their jobs were being outsourced, a Fort Meade employee said.</br></br>The workers were stunned to learn they had lost the competition, the employee said. They had put together a proposal for a "most efficient organization" and believed they would have the upper hand in the competition because of security concerns. Fort Meade is the home of the super-secret National Security Agency, which collects foreign intelligence information, and employees doubted the Army would want to take on the cost of security checks for a contract workforce, the employee said.