Privatization Watch
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AFSCME Affiliates Fight Back
JUST SAY NO | Council 62 members who are employed at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus join other activists in January to protest threatened outsourcing.
PHOTO CREDIT: Georgia Perry/Indiana Daily Student
Politicians across the country keep trying to send public-sector jobs to private companies, but AFSCME continues to fight back.
In Wisconsin, last Christmas appeared bleak for some 130 low-income Milwaukee County employees — mostly members of Local 882 (Council 48) — who had received layoff notices from the privateer-friendly county executive. But the holiday became happy when the workers saved their jobs and prevented the county from outsourcing for the next two years.
Last November, Council 48 headed into arbitration to reach an agreement for a new four-year contract covering more than 3,600 county employees. Supervisors had earlier passed a budget that would have cut — and outsourced — approximately 130 workers, who cleaned up the courthouse and the security force that ran the metal detectors. The county also threatened to privatize entry-level park maintenance work later in the year.
The county was using the budget threats “as an economic weapon to coerce us into their final offer,” says Richard Abelson, Council 48’s executive director. The council fought back by persuading a circuit court judge to issue a temporary restraining order that would have prevented any layoffs until the court could conduct a full hearing scheduled for Dec. 27.
A day before the hearing, the county gave in. Officials agreed not to lay off the workers or privatize their jobs. In January, union members overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract, which puts the promises in writing, and includes the equivalent of 2-percent annual raises, retroactive to 2005 and running through 2008. Says Abelson, “I think it’s a good contract for our members and for the taxpayers of Milwaukee County.”
Eye on America's Privateers
On a cold day in January, almost 200 Indiana protesters — including members of Council 62 — demonstrated against the possible outsourcing of services at Indiana University’s Bloomington campus. The union, which represents about 1,000 university employees, is trying to prevent the privatization of jobs now held by some 75 AFSCME-represented custodians who work in the bookstore and motor pool. The protesters collected signatures for a petition calling on the university’s board of trustees to “end all efforts to outsource IU jobs.” At the rally, demonstrators were encouraged by elected officials, including Democratic state Sen. Vi Simpson. Dave Warrick, AFSCME International vice president and executive director of Council 62, addressed the crowd, saying, “It’s a shame that IU would even think about doing this to the employees who have been loyal to this institution. But we are not going to stand for it!”
In December, the state of Colorado formally cancelled a contract with the Florida-based GEO Group (formerly known as Wackenhut) to build a private pre-release prison in Pueblo for 500 state inmates. What was the problem? Not only had the privateer failed to break ground since it won the contract in 2003 (having run into local opposition and zoning problems), but the company demanded changes in its deal after it had won the contract. GEO even had the audacity to demand more money per inmate — or a revenue guarantee amounting to $1 billion over 30 years. So much for its website boast that, compared to public construction, GEO can save “approximately 20 to 30 percent” in designing and building prisons through a “fast-track, design-build approach backed by a fully guaranteed, firm, fixed-fee contract.”Firm contract? Fast track? Fixed fee? Colorado officials now know better.
