Protecting Our Jobs
Delegates share strategies to fight contracting out.
When Connie Collier went up against Kreider Services in Dixon, Ill., she didn’t know the lengths that the private health services contractor would go to keep AFSCME out. Collier’s supervisor followed her around at work, on breaks and even to the bathroom. Rumors flew around town that Collier would be fired for her union support. Hired-gun Dennis Fisher, a notorious union buster, was brought in by Kreider to stop the organizing move.
But Collier — a single mother raising three sons on $7 an hour — and her fellow workers refused to give in to the intimidation. They held their election and voted for AFSCME. Collier’s story, as told to the Convention by Tracey Abman, organizing director for Council 31 in Illinois, is a relatively new experience for AFSCME: It was played out in the private sector, where companies can unleash massive financial resources to block unionization.
Organizing the private sector, though, is likely to become more familiar under the organizing program adopted by delegates. That program commits AFSCME “to follow our work to organize private public services whose employers jeopardize the standards we’ve attained for public service by competing on the basis of low pay and benefits.”
“Following the work” occurs when privatization has taken place despite efforts to thwart it. Generally, AFSCME will fight contracting out using various strategies endorsed by delegates, who, with a resolution, called on the union to “redouble its efforts to fight contracting out on all fronts, through education of membership, citizens, the media and public officials, through political and legislative action; and through advocacy and negotiation at the bargaining table” and elsewhere.
SAVVY. As delegates shared their experiences with privatization, it was clear that not only is privatization a national problem, but the union has increasing expertise in dealing with it.
In “Protecting Our Jobs” workshops, delegates heard that simply getting the word out sometimes generates enough support to stop privatization. Donald Afflick, New York Local 1655 (D.C. 37), told his fellow workshop participants, “We went to business organizations. We went to city councils and small towns. We told them about the impact of privatization. If you make them understand this, you’ll find support.”
Kevin Lightsey told of a public relations strategy that worked for his New York Local 2507 (D.C. 37): “We marketed ourselves. We said ‘Public Emergency Medical Service is the best pre-hospital care in New York City.’ Public hospital nurses, doctors and support staff need to market themselves. They do it better!”
AFSCME members are increasingly savvy about contractor bidding practices. Some are now analyzing contracts for, among other things, details that management fails to include. As Robert Kaczmarek, of California Local 3143 (Council 36), noted, “The people who put out the RFPs (requests for proposals) don’t know all the details that go into the job. Contractors can put in low bids because they know they’ll make lots of money on change orders.”
After a contract is awarded, monitoring it can help the union’s cause too, according to Russell Johnson, vice president of Local 1505 (D.C. 37) in New York. “We followed private contractors who got city work,” he said, “and found out that they were not performing repairs. So the city discontinued the contract.”
POLITICAL PERSUASION. Fresh on the heels of California Labor’s victory against Proposition 226, many delegates saw political power as a primary weapon against privatization. “We organized a voter registration drive to kick out politicians who support privatization,” noted Ed Scurry, Pennsylvania Local 285 (Council 13).
Other delegates told how legal action has been effective in fighting government “outsourcing.” A delegate from Ohio reported that her union went to court when contracting practices required under the state’s sunshine law were violated by a school district that signed a contract without a public hearing. The union won.
COMPETITIVE MUSCLE. AFSCME affiliates are having great success bidding against private contractors. And under the “Fighting Contracting Out” resolution passed by delegates, AFSCME will continue to provide assistance to locals in developing competitive bids. Affiliates also will look for opportunities to cooperate with management to develop higher quality and more cost-efficient services.
Increased emphasis will be given to contract language and procurement policies that prohibit or restrict the ability of public employers to pursue contracting out. One policy that seems to work are the living-wage laws, which deter contractors who underbid public employees by paying their own employees poverty wages.
Right now 13 cities have living-wage laws that require companies with significant amounts of city business to pay their workers a living wage that is higher than the minimum wage — often with benefits.
Whatever the strategy, AFSCME delegates were aware that their fight against privatization will only be as strong as they are. “We must begin by organizing ourselves,” summed up Robert Turner, president of Local 2210 (Council 71) in New Jersey. “It starts with us.”
That’s a lesson Connie Collier knows well.
By Catherine Barnett Alexander
