WHEREAS:
Public workers continue to be the backbone of federal, state, county, and municipal governments, providing essential services needed by citizens in good times and bad; and

WHEREAS:
The public has a right to expect honest, efficient public service workers, who are responsive to citizens’ needs and provide services fairly, without regard to profits, political goals, or personal gain; and

WHEREAS:
Right-wing politicians continue to use privatization to circumvent civil service systems, due process protections, sunshine laws, and other crucial safeguards which ensure honest and open government; and to reward their corporate friends with contracts, while taking away public workers’ jobs, rights, union contracts, and political power; and

WHEREAS:
Predictions of cost savings from privatization do not stand up to scrutiny, and frequently turn out to be based more on ideology than on fact. Privatization often means major cost overruns and quality problems; and

WHEREAS:
Estimates in such sources as Governing put the volume of privatization at “between 15 and 20 percent of all state spending,” and indicate that it “adds up to a total that may be in excess of $200 billion” per year, and also indicate that there is a chronic lack of oversight for privatized services.  A contractor’s association claims local governments spend about $300 billion a year on privatized services; and

WHEREAS:
The Bush administration canceled standards promoting “responsible contracting,” which made contractor violations of labor, civil rights, environmental, safety and health, and other laws a factor in procurement decisions; and

WHEREAS:
This and other Bush executive branch actions have encouraged a culture of lawlessness, political cronyism, and noncompetitive federal contracts at home and abroad; and

WHEREAS:
The administration and its right-wing allies have tried to change the terms of the debate, defining “commercial” activities, which could be subject to privatization, very broadly, and “inherently governmental” activities, which should not be privatized, very narrowly; and

WHEREAS:
This misleading framework is a tactic to bypass honest discussion of privatization’s effects; and

WHEREAS:
These ill-advised concepts have taken root not only in parts of the federal government, but also in many state and local governments; and

WHEREAS:
Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, the Bush administration’s Budget Director in its first term, is a prime example of privatization problems at the federal level migrating to the state level; and

WHEREAS:
Daniels has been one of the most anti-worker, anti-union, and pro-privatization governors in recent history, not only taking away state employee bargaining rights but also seeking to privatize infrastructure and social and health services, with disastrous effects for citizens and workers; and

WHEREAS:
Many other public officials share his disdain for public services, and seek to weaken the public sector, erase merit and due process safeguards, and eviscerate union protections.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That 2008 federal, state and local elections provide an opportunity to reshape the debate about privatization and outsourcing on our terms; and to restore and enact safeguards so that vital public services are not auctioned off to the lowest bidder; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: 
That AFSCME take advantage of this opportunity by continuing to aggressively oppose privatization and outsourcing and by exposing contractors and educating the membership, elected officials and the general public about the problems related to privatization, and by working in coalitions with other concerned groups; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That, where appropriate, AFSCME participate in joint labor-management quality initiatives or other similar partnership efforts to improve the quality and cost effectiveness of public services by developing and utilizing the expertise of public workers; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue to advocate for strong laws and regulations that shine the light on privatization, that require ample oversight of privatized services, and that require state and local government to track and disclose privatization spending and projects in detail; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue to lobby for the highest standards of cost-effectiveness, quality, openness, and honesty in public services, and hold private vendors to similar high standards; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED:
That AFSCME continue to develop an aggressive communication strategy which emphasizes the value of public service and exposes the practices of more costly, less effective private contracts.
 
 
SUBMITTED BY: Paula Dorsey, President and Delegate
Catherine Muir, Secretary
AFSCME Council 48
Wisconsin

Claude Fort, President and Delegate
AFSCME Local 375, Council 37
New York