Privatization
 Driven by wrong-minded public officials and corporate greed, contracts for public services are doled out without regard to cost effectiveness or quality. Time and time again, the public pays more and gets lower quality of services while public workers are laid off and corruption scandals make the news. AFSCME is fighting hard to preserve quality public services, ensure that public service employees are treated fairly and hold elected officials accountable to the public.
Selling (Out) the Future In farming it is called "eating your seed corn." In government, when times get tight, public officials turn to the sale of assets -- the equivalent of selling the family jewels. A recent Wall Street Journal article documented the stampede of governments turning to privatization and asset sales during these tough economic times. (Governing, 8/26/2010) The economic power of Obama’s pen Federal purchases, such as military uniforms and janitorial services, total a staggering half a trillion dollars a year. But of the resulting millions of jobs, too many pay poverty wages. An estimated 1 in 5 federally contracted workers earns less than the poverty level for a family of four, according to a 2009 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. (Los Angeles Times, 7/6/2010) Thirsty for answers: Mayor's plan to sell water co. raises questions Indianapolis has owned the water company and its assets since 2002, when then-mayor Bart Peterson purchased the Indianapolis Water Company for $515 million and awarded a lucrative management contact to USFilter, a subsidiary of French water conglomerate Vivendi Environnement, now known as Veolia. As part of the deal, the Peterson administration negotiated a five-year freeze on water rates, promising residents of Indiana better service at the same rates. Despite promises to improve customer service and water quality, customer complaints doubled within the USFilter's first year of managing the system and a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit watchdog, recently ranked water quality in Indianapolis 90th out of America's 100 largest cities, finding concentrations of 11 chemicals that exceeded federal health guidelines. (NUVO, 7/5/2010)
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Mary White Council 79, Florida
"When politicians privatize government services, everyone loses -- taxpayers and public employees. Quality goes down and costs of those services go up. We have to stop privatization."
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