The Privatization of Public Services, State by State
Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest, a national resource center on privatization and responsible contracting, sends us this.
It seems there’s no public service or piece of property that private companies are not eyeing as potential revenue streams. While funding anti-government think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), companies like Corrections Corporation of America, Waste Management, Maximus, Intuit, Laidlaw, Northrup Grumman, Koch Companies, Macquarie Capital Advisers, Pinnacle West, and UnitedHealthcare are hoping to use government as their candy store.
They want to take over our roads, bridges, parking lots, water systems, college dorms, and prisons. And they want to deliver public services like transit systems, school cafeterias, trash and recycling pick up, mental health services and many others. The following is a quick scan of just some of the proposals.
Water
The Emergency manager of Flint, Mich., is considering selling off its water and sewer systems to the highest bidder. The systems are currently generating revenues for the city.
Long Island’s Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano’s proposal is proposing to privatize the county’s sewage treatment system. Mangano also announced the privatization of Long Island Bus company to Veolia Transportation.
The Texas Lower Colorado River Authority is selling 18 retail water and wastewater systems in the Hill Country and in its southeast service area to [Canada-based] Corix Infrastructure.
Schools
School districts across the country are planning to contract out custodial, clerical, cafeteria and bus Read the rest of this entry »
Victory for Workers’ Rights in Santa Barbara ‘News-Press Mess’
This is an excerpt from a cross-post at the California Labor Federation by Melinda Burns, Teamsters Graphic Communications Conference.
The National Labor Relations Board last week ordered the Santa Barbara News-Press to reinstate me and seven other reporters who were illegally fired nearly five years ago, after our newsroom voted to unionize. I was the first to be escorted out of the building in October 2006, one month after we voted overwhelmingly to join the union. I was a senior writer, I had been at the paper for 21 years, and I had won local, state, regional and national awards for the paper with my reporting.
Back in July of 2006, the News-Press newsroom faced a crisis. Five top editors resigned, alleging that Wendy McCaw, the multimillionaire owner, was improperly meddling in news coverage, in part by arbitrarily disciplining her own reporters and editors. In September of that year, seeking to protect our professional integrity and job security, we newsroom employees voted 33-6 to join the Graphics Communications Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
Unions Respond to Devastating Montana Floods
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AFL-CIO Community Services Director Will Fischer reports on the flood relief efforts unions are mounting in Montana.
Montana has been hit hard by a series of recent severe storms coupled with runoff from mountain snow melt. The combination has caused serious flooding across the state. Forty-eight of the state’s 56 counties have declared flood emergencies and federal disaster declarations have been issued for 31 counties, plus four American Indian reservations.
The central Montana town of Roundup has been completely submerged in floodwaters. In northeast Montana, there is massive flooding in the town of Glasgow. The Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana has been devastated by floodwaters displacing hundreds from their homes, and forcing more than 50 families to live in a gymnasium.
The Montana State AFL-CIO is working with coalition partners Montana Organizing Project, Forward Montana, along with central labor councils and union members throughout the state to coordinate a response effort to bring supplies to those in need and protect homes and other public buildings from water damage.
IAM Ratifies Pact with Army Fleet Support—and More Bargaining News
The Machinists (IAM) approved a new contract with Army Fleet Support, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
IAM, Army Fleet Support: Members of Machinists (IAM) Local 2003 at Ft. Rucker, Ala., ratified a new three-year contract with Army Fleet Support earlier this month. The 3,800 IAM members are trainers, test pilots and mechanics at the Army’s largest helicopter base.
This Money Trail Leads Straight to Prisons—Private Ones
After the November elections, with its raft of new Republicans in governors’ seats and in control of state legislatures, we’ve seen many of those states implement a corporate agenda that includes attacks on workers’ rights, new corporate tax cuts and privatization of state services.
Some of the biggest privatization prizes are state prison systems. A new report from AFSCME follows the money from corporations to the lawmakers who are now pushing lucrative prison privatization contracts in several states.
According to “Making a Killing: How Prison Corporations Are Profiting from Campaign Contributions and Putting Taxpayers at Risk,” the three largest private prison companies are The GEO Group Inc., Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Management & Training Corporation (MTC). Each election cycle, according to the report, these corporations:
pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into the campaigns of governors, state legislators and judges, in the hopes of advancing their political agenda—establishing more private prisons and reducing the number of public ones.
Play Ball!
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With Major League Baseball’s 2011 season under way, our friends at the Alliance for American Manufacturing remind us that the all-American pastime still features some Made-in-USA sports gear.
Rawlings has been making baseball gloves since 1887. Despite diversifying overseas, Rawlings’ pro model and custom gloves are still made in Washington, Mo.
You can do what the pros do and have your glove tailor-made to your exact specifications at Rawlings’ Missouri factory.
You can’t have a ball game without a bat, so get a good grip on a Louisville Slugger. The wooden bats are crafted by members of the United Steelworkers (USW) at the company’s home in Louisville, Ky. The aluminum bats are produced in Ontario, Calif., by members of the Teamsters (IBT).
Indiana Workers Continue Monthlong Capitol Vigil
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Today marks the 23rd day Indiana teachers, public employees and other workers have been at the state Capitol protesting more than 30 bills backed by Republican lawmakers and Gov. Mitch Daniels (R). The legislative package includes bills that slash public school budgets, defund women’s health care and eliminate public-sector unions.
Indiana State AFL-CIO President Nancy Guyott says the four weeks of large crowds and actions:
have proven that the working men and women cannot be ignored. We will continue to make our voices heard until these politicians end this assault on working families in Indiana.
Mike Uehlein, AFL-CIO Field Communications Director for Indiana sends us these comments from workers who have been part of the month-long vigil.
Jeff Withered, Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 399—We’re down here in the fight at the Statehouse for workers and also for the public schools. This is truly a fight about the working class, not the unions. We’re down here trying to get our word and get our message out and bring as much support as we can.
Worker Deaths Belie Politicians’ Portrayal of Public Employees
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Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), New Jersey Chris Christie (R) and politicians around the nation are running campaigns to demonize public employees and lay the blame for state budget problems at their feet.
They conveniently ignore the dedicated and many times dangerous work public employees do every day–like AFSCME Local 379 member Billy Rhynalds and Teamsters (IBT) Local 117 member Jayme Biendl, both of whom were killed recently on the job.
Rhynalds was setting up traffic cones Feb. 2 after heavy rains struck western Washington, flooding roads and knocking down power lines. When a cottonwood tree fell on the highway, it hit and killed Rhynalds.
Biendl, a corrections officer at the Monroe (Wash.) Correctional Complex, was murdered Jan. 29 as she worked alone in the prison chapel.
Pipeline Project Creates Thousands of Skilled Construction Jobs
More than 13,000 American workers will build the U.S. portion of a 2,000-mile oil pipeline running from Alberta, Canada, to Port Arthur, Texas, under a project labor agreement (PLA) signed this week by four U.S. unions and pipeline builder TransCanada Corp.
Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), says:
At a time when corporations and industries are seeking to ensure maximum efficiencies and a proper return on their investments, America’s building trades unions are pleased that TransCanada Corporation has recognized that a project labor agreement is a valuable tool to assist them in achieving those important objectives.
PLAs are pre-hire agreements between labor and management. The agreements require all construction jobs to be filled by local workers, include diversity requirements, establish wages and work rules covering overtime, working hours and dispute resolution and ensure that safety guidelines on the job site are enforced.
Union Members Help Keep Daimler Plant Open—and More Bargaining News
Union members negotiate a contract that keeps an Oregon Daimler Trucks plant from closing, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,300 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
Multiple, Daimler Trucks North America: Good news in Portland, Ore., where a Daimler Trucks North America plant slated for closure will remain open after union members ratified new three-year contracts with the company. Most of the nearly 700 workers are members of Machinists (IAM) Local 1005, and others are represented by Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Local 1094, Teamsters Local 305 and SEIU Local 49.
