Lessons from Philadelphia
One of the challenges my father and his generation
confronted is still with us today: privatization
By Gerald W. McEntee
I was about 9 or 10 years old when AFSCME Council 33 in Philadelphia was formed out of the old Amalgamated Local 222. I remember the date well because my father served as the first president of that council.
Not too long ago, I was honored to go back to Philadelphia to speak to Council 33.
During that speech, I started to think back to some of the stories I heard about the indignities that city employees had to endure, especially those who worked in the Sanitation Department where my father worked. I thought back to what the union meant for my father and our family. I thought about what that whole generation of AFSCME members were fighting for.
They were fighting for justice.
They were fighting for fairness.
They were fighting for equality.
They were fighting for the same things that our Labor movement is still fighting for all across this nation.
Like them, we are still fighting for the kind of wages that hard-working people deserve. Wages that will not only put food on our tables and a roof over our heads, but will give people an opportunity to get ahead in life.
Like them, we are still fighting for the kind of benefits dedicated public servants have a right to. Benefits that give families decent health care and allow people to retire and live in comfort and dignity.
And while I can’t help but think that in some ways we have made strides in those areas, I know that in many ways we are still in the starting block.
One of the challenges my father and his generation confronted is still with us today: privatization.
I wish I could offer you a simple answer to privatization to make it go away, but I can’t.
The truth is that the urge to privatize public services is just another sign of what is wrong with the warped world we live in. It is the world in which you can do more for less — get what you can while you can. It is the world of corporate mergers that sacrifice workers for the sake of executive salaries.
It is the world where politicians make easy promises and look for easy fixes to hard problems. We no longer live in a society that looks for real solutions. We live in a world that tries to solve difficult problems with soundbites and sitcoms.
And that is exactly where privatization comes from. Instead of facing and fixing the real problems in this country, politicians look for the quick solution. And nine times out of 10, that solution is privatization.
All of us are smart enough to understand that if you turn over a public service to a for-profit private contractor, ultimately it is profit and not the public that will be served.
And as long as we allow politicians to look for the quick fixes, private profiteers are going to continue to try to push aside public employees in their quest to tap into public treasuries.
It seems to me that there are three ways to attack this problem.
First, we have to redouble our efforts to fight privatization in city council chambers, county commission hearing rooms, state legislatures and the halls of Congress.
Second, we need to make sure these politicians understand that our power as a union extends beyond the bargaining table all the way to the ballot box. That is why it is so critical that all of us work together to defeat the Paycheck Deception initiatives that are still alive in different states.
By limiting our political power, those who wish to privatize public jobs will go unchecked.
Third, the best way to fight privatization is to recommit ourselves to organizing.
As union members we understand that there is strength in numbers. Whether we are sitting at the bargaining table or at a committee hearing table in a state capitol or in Washington, D.C., the more people we have behind us, the more clearly our voice will be heard.
