Seattle, WA – Seattle union members and community activists joined a National Day of Protest on March 23 led by the National Association of Letter Carriers, saying “Hell No!” to dismantling the postal service. 300 people attended the rally in front of a Seattle post office, one of several rallies in the region in solidarity with 200,000 letter carriers and 640,000 postal workers who are fighting against President Trump’s attempt to restructure or privatize the U.S. Postal Service.

The Trump administration threatened to reorganize the independent, self-sufficient USPS under the Department of Commerce. Elon Musk recently stated, “We should privatize anything that can reasonably be privatized.”

Speakers emphasized the universal, trusted, public service of the USPS and were representative of the breadth and depth of solidarity for letter carriers across the labor movement.

David Yao from the American Postal Workers Union said, “Trump and his evil henchman Elon Musk have come for our public services and that is because the billionaires don’t need those services, the people do! What do they want? Higher prices, less services! But we are going to fight, and we are going to win!”

C Moline, rally emcee, NALC shop steward and delegate, stirred the crowd, stating, “Why was there a 1970 strike? Because we had no collective bargaining, we only had collective begging. Letter carriers deserve fair pay, and fair work.”

Katie Garrow, executive secretary treasurer of the MLK Labor Council, continued the theme, “In 50 years, we will look back on this moment and your children and your grandchildren will ask you: where were you then? You will be able to tell them that you stood in the rain to fight back!”

To close out the rally, the Seattle Labor Chorus sang Solidarity Forever and the union letter carriers led the crowd on a march around the block, situated in a popular strip mall. Workers chanted, “Yes to unionization! No to privatization!” and “When union rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

While this action was at an urban postal office, the NALC has emphasized that while everyone benefits from the widely trusted USPS that delivers 376 million pieces of mail and packages, rural residents benefit the most. USPS letter carriers deliver mail to 51.5 million rural households and businesses where private carriers do not deliver.

A reorganization or privatization of USPS could have a devastating impact, not only jeopardizing the 7.9 million jobs in the mailing industry, but it could also reduce or end services to rural households and raise shipping costs. In this scenario, working-class households are hit the hardest, while a tiny number of bureaucrats and billionaires profit.

The Seattle rally was one of many across the country, demonstrating the desire of letter carriers and postal services workers to fight against Trump’s attacks, and the broad community support for their universal public service.

#SeattleWA #WA #Labor #Postal #APWU #NALC #Privatization #Trump

Los Angeles, CA – On April 22, more than 100 Sheridan Street Elementary School students, teachers, parents and community supporters took to the streets to oppose a privatization threat through the co-location of their school.

Co-location involves the takeover of public school classrooms and resources by an incoming charter school. The KIPP Promesa Charter is the corporation threatening to co-locate at Sheridan and is notorious for doing so at countless LA Unified School District schools. Teachers and staff at Sheridan heard about the plans, and quickly organized a protest to voice their opposition. It was quickly learned that the action resulted in a complete back-off by the privatization threat – a victory for public schools.

Beating on drums, shaking tambourines, and holding handmade posters, the participants chanted, “Boyle Heights says, ‘No to KIPP!’” and “KIPP Promesa, you’re not cool! We don’t want you in our school!”

The march was organized by Sheridan teachers and began at the school. The protesters circled around Sheridan a few times, before heading off on the sidewalk towards downtown. Turning left on Cummings, the marchers then took a right on 1st Street, and continued marching until they ended at Mariachi Plaza. Once at Mariachi Plaza, the large crowd cheered as the successful arrival to Mariachi Plaza signaled the beginning of their rally. A delegation of Centro CSO members participated, supported and helped with the protest.

Edelyn Ortiz, who has been a paraprofessional at Sheridan for years, was one of the organizers and security of the event. At the rally at Mariachi Plaza, Ortiz said, “It’s not okay to come into our school and divide us and our students.”

Another key organizer of the event, Esperanza Polley, said, “Some of our teachers have been at Sheridan for over 25 years; Boyle Heights is our community. Today was incredible, it really showed everyone that teachers will always fight for their students and that parents are able to move mountains when they unite.”

Antonia Montes, who is a teacher at Eastman Avenue Elementary School and a member of Centro CSO, spoke about the damage done at her school. Eastman is currently co-located by the Extera Charter corporation. Extera has taken over much-needed classrooms, poached students and not paid any rent to the LA Unified School District (LAUSD). Dr. Rocio Rivas spoke about the need to rein in the growth of charter schools at LAUSD. Dr. Rivas is running for LA school board and is supported and endorsed by many organizations that fight for public education, including Centro CSO and United Teachers Los Angeles.

On the stage, various speakers talked about the reality public schools face against privatization efforts. Corporations like KIPP, Extera and Ednovate-Esperanza hide under the guise that they are better options for students. In reality, charter schools are highly selective of their students, have high suspension rates, and oftentimes reject students with disabilities and African American students.

Due to the bad press KIPP received from this inspiring action, KIPP announced they would not be co-locating Sheridan Avenue Elementary. This was a victory because of the rapid action taken by teachers, students and parents.

To join efforts to protect public education and to become a member of Centro CSO, attend the next Centro CSO Education Committee meeting. They meet every first Tuesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. You may contact CSO at 323-943-2030, CentroCSO@gmail.com, and @CentroCSO on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #privatization #BoyleHeights

Eulalia “Laly” Centeno was interviewed Oct. 23 at the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Centeno is a teacher at the Salvador Brau Elementary School in Cayey and active with the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation. She talks about the danger of the government using the crisis of Hurricane Maria to impose massive school closings and privatize public education in Puerto Rico – as they’ve tried to do for years but have not been able to because of resistance from teachers and the community. She warns that the government is using the model that was used in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, when public schools were closed en masse and changed to privatized charter schools. Interview and translation into English by Brad Sigal. Fight Back!: Can you tell us who you are and what’s happening with your school? Eulalia Centeno: I’m Eulalia Centeno Ramos, better known as Laly Centeno. I’m a teacher and affiliated with the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation (FMPR). I’m an elementary school teacher at the school called Salvador Brau, which is a K-6 school. In this difficult moment that the country is living through, the school where I work is in the best possible condition because it has electricity, it has water, and it’s clean because the teachers and workers of the school did all the cleaning. We got everything ready. We organized the program to welcome back students and start the academic process. All areas are ready to start classes.

But then the Education Secretary announced that in this school, this town, this region, classes won’t start until the Commission of Engineers from the U.S. comes and certifies it. They are saying that for now the students aren’t allowed to be in the school. But the workers, all the workers are in the school! I can’t understand that.

What makes us think that the government has a plan with the intention to get more money out of FEMA and is projecting to close schools and eventually merge them is that this already was the plan that the Fiscal Control Board had. Now Hurricane Maria has just opened the doors for them to come in and undo everything and play with the emotional state and conditions of our children, our parents, our staff, so that they can impose school closings and eliminate teachers from the system. With our children living in the subhuman conditions in which we’re living in terms of health and security they even said we couldn’t use the school kitchens in our schools in the center of the island to provide food for the people.

Because of all this, it’s clear they want to do long-term school closings so they’re being very selective about which schools to reopen first because this would be a new class cycle. They’re being very selective and that way they can close schools and provide ‘alternatives’ to the children of our country.

Fight Back!: And these school closings are part of a privatization agenda, like what happened after Hurricane Katrina? Centeno: Yes, they want to go through a process of privatization. Yes. Because what happened with Katrina, they have established in writing that they are using the Katrina model here in Puerto Rico. Already, right now, they are offering the public school up to the association of private schools to use the buildings of the public schools. They are ready to give them over to them so they can use them. But they are not opening the schools up to the people in the same way.

The most lamentable part of all this is that the [other] union that is supposed to represent teachers, the Association of Teachers, is being complicit in this process of school closings, of privatization of the schools in the country. It’s in writing and the governor and education secretary have said that the model they’re using is the Katrina model from New Orleans and we know this is what happened there. So we in the Puerto Rican Teachers Federation are alerting the country, we’re alerting parents, we’re alerting the community that we can not allow this.

What they are doing is not helping the country, it’s for the benefit of a few rich people using the needs of the people to do it.

#SanJuanPuertoRico #SanJuan #PuertoRico #privatization #TeachersUnions #FederaciónDeMaestrosDePuertoRico #PuertoRicanTeachersFederation

Jacksonville, FL – Dozens of union workers rallied outside of the Staples store on Beach Boulevard here to oppose the proposed privatization of key United States Postal Service (USPS) jobs.

The protest was part of a nationwide day of action on April 24, called by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU). The National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), the Mail Handlers Union, and National Rural Letter Carriers Association (NRLCA) supported it. Rallies, pickets and protests took place across the country at 50 locations in 27 states and drew out hundreds of workers, according to the APWU.

The Jacksonville protest drew a sizable crowd from all four of the major unions that represent workers at the USPS. Several members of Teamsters Local 512 who work at UPS also came out to show their solidarity as fellow package handlers.

“It's important because the Postal Service employs a lot of workers,” said Doris Orr-Richardson, President of the APWU 7041 in Jacksonville. She said of the Staples move: “It's a back door way to privatization by hiring minimum wage workers to do skilled labor. Each and every postal worker has to sign a ‘sanctity of the mail’ affidavit. Staples workers are told, ‘Here is the product, sell it.’”

Waving signs that read, “Stop Staples,” and “U.S. mail, not for sale,” the protesters received honks and cheers of support from passing cars.

Early in the rally, a Staples manager came outside to watch the protesters and photograph the event.

The privatized outsourcing of major USPS functions to Staples is the latest in a long series of attacks by major corporations and monopoly banks on the publicly-owned postal service. Congressmembers and Senators from both the Republicans and the Democrats have pushed harmful legislation that puts undue financial burdens on the post office in order to make it fail. In 2006, a bipartisan Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which forced the USPS into a 75-year liability for retirement benefits. Although the Post Office is an incredibly efficient operation, this requirement has USPS overfunding retirement by paying for postal workers who have not even been born. No other federal agency is expected to fund their retirement plans 75 years in advance.

The USPS administration handled this artificial crisis predictably by cutting over 200,000 postal jobs, closing down mail distribution centers and local post offices, and now contracting work out to non-union employers like Staples. The American Postal Workers Union is demanding that these new Staples mail centers be staffed with union postal workers and not minimum-wage retail workers.

Earlier in 2014, International APWU President Mark Dimondstein announced a nationwide alliance between the APWU, the NALC, the Mail Handlers Union, and NRLCA. The focus of this historic unity between the four postal unions is to reverse cuts made to the USPS service, resist privatization attempts like Staples and work with the people to better the post office for workers and customers.

#JacksonvilleFL #privatization #Capitalism #USPS #workersRights #AmericanPostalWorkersUnion

Jacksonville, FL – Protesters from the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition stood outside of a local Staples retail store, Feb. 8, demanding that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) stop using non-union labor at Staples. In order to cut costs, the Postal Service recently opened up mail centers at participating Staples stores around the nation as part of a test program. Instead of employing union postal workers with good pay and benefits, these new centers are staffed by underpaid, non-union retail workers.

“Union membership has been declining since the Reagan administration,” said Marina Djordjevic, lead organizer of the event. “If people do not voice immediate opposition, union busting will persist.”

Due to a 2006 decision by Congress, the U.S. Post Service was forced to make unprecedented yearly payments of almost $6 billion in healthcare costs for future retirees. That is, the U.S. Postal Service is prefunding retirement benefits and turning its surplus into a deficit.

U.S. Postal Service administration handled this artificial crisis predictably, by cutting over 200,000 postal jobs, closing down mail distribution centers and local post offices, and now contracting work out to non-union employers like Staples. The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) is demanding that these new Staples mail centers be staffed with union postal workers and not minimum-wage retail workers.

“This is part of a move to shift work in this country to low paid part-time employees,” said Fernando Figueroa, member of the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition. “Either the mail centers employ postal workers or we have to organize all Staples employees into a union of their own. The unions need to build towards a strike or their jobs are going to be privatized.”

Protesters waved signs that read “Save our service” and “Stop Staples union busting.” Drivers passing by on Beach Boulevard, one of the busiest streets in Jacksonville, honked their horns and gave thumbs up to show their support for union jobs.

If the pilot program goes well, the non-union mail centers are threatening to spread to the thousands of other Staples stores around the country. This is a major step towards privatizing the U.S. Postal Service.

#JacksonvilleFL #privatization #unionBusting #postalWorkers #JacksonvilleProgressiveCoalition #Staples

This is the second great setback for workers and unions in Michigan, coming on the heels of last year’s ramming through of so-called ‘right to work’ laws by Republicans and right-wing Governor Snyder. That same Republican-dominated legislative session overrode a fresh, legally binding referendum passed by Michigan voters that rejected Governor Snyder’s use of Emergency Financial Managers (EFM). The Republicans simply tinkered with the old law and passed a new EFM as part of an appropriations bill – which cannot be put to a referendum.

For union workers in Detroit, a city which is 84% African American, the bankruptcy is a disaster. Despite union givebacks and changes to retirement and pension plans, workers are hearing bankruptcy experts say they can expect between 10 and 20 cents on the dollar for their years of hard work and dedication. So despite years of union contracts, negotiated with local elected officials and approved under state laws, a judge will ultimately decide how much of a pension workers will get.

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union, or AFSCME, represents about 70% of Detroit city workers, excluding categories like police and firefighters. AFSCME says their pension benefits were reduced by nearly 40% since 2012. In addition, on the job workers took a 10% pay cut in the past fiscal year to help avoid bankruptcy. Right now the average yearly pension is $19,000, but could go down to $9000 after the judge’s ruling.

There is no doubt that Detroit is a suffering city, whose manufacturing base along with hundreds of thousands of jobs largely disappeared since the 1970s. In previous decades Detroit was seen as a successful and exciting city, popularly known throughout the world for cars, sports, Motown music and good jobs. African Americans and their labor were a large part of this success. People in Detroit were proud of their city, their struggles and their accomplishments and they exercised more control over their lives than ever before.

However the big capitalists began to abandon Detroit starting in the 1970s, taking their investments and production elsewhere – to the suburbs, the South and overseas. Population began to fall, reaching less than half of what it once was, down to 701,000 today. With population falling steeply after 2000, Detroit now has a smaller tax base and the same and sometimes greater responsibilities. Corporations that did stay paid less in taxes. The good jobs dwindled. The great economic crisis that hit in 2008 left even more workers unemployed – today around 18% – hurting city income even more.

During the great economic crisis, the U.S. government spent billions to bail out banks and insurance companies, but there is no lifeline for Detroit and its workers. Instead they are being punished with bankruptcy, as if it is the only option. In the process, the politicians and judges are breaking contracts and abandoning long-held promises to workers and unions. Republican Governor Rick Snyder, instead of working with Detroit to avoid crisis, cut state funding in recent years ($66 million was cut between 2011-2012) and then took over local government by appointing an Emergency Financial Manager, sidelining the Mayor and other elected officials. The Governor has used the EFM to take over in small blue-collar towns, local school districts, and now the city of Detroit. The result of the EFM is always the same: cuts in social programs, privatization of schools and services and a refusal to negotiate with union workers, followed by their eventual replacement. In most cases thus far, the targets of EFM are government bodies run by African Americans.

Detroit faces real problems, but the rich and their politicians take advantage of the situation, and turn it into a crisis so they can seize power. Next they privatize valuable assets, like the Detroit Water and Sewage Department, at bargain basement prices. Wall Street wants to get their hands on the water works, so they can charge higher prices to homeowners and make a profit off of what should be a public utility. The EFM for Detroit, Kevyn Orr, has outside experts providing ‘valuations’ of the full range of city assets, including the parking meters and parking garages, publicly owned land like Belle Isle and other parks, the Detroit-WindsorTunnel (to Canada) and the Coleman A. Young International Airport. It may soon all be up for sale.

Even the public works of art in the Detroit Institute of Art are not safe. Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr had all the art appraised this week by Christie’s auction house. Orr’s representative, the New York investment banker Ken Buckfire, had secretly sent Christie’s appraisers to the art museum in June on an ‘informal’ basis. This past week, Buckfire was forced to cancel an ‘informal’ tour of Detroit. ‘Advisers’ were going to be shown the assets of the city that are going up for sale.

Judge Rhodes’ ruling is an attack on pensions, workers and unions across the country. It opens the door for other cities to run out on their contracts and displace unions. With Illinois pensions being called into question and some California cities facing similar funding problems, Detroit is now a test case. Republicans are leading the charge to force bankruptcy, suspend and override election results, to sell off assets and to cut and privatize social services. The Democrats are shrugging their shoulders and promising things will be different at the next election. The unions are in a life and death fight in Detroit. Workers have a lot at stake.

#DetroitMI #PoorPeoplesMovements #pensions #privatization #RepublicanAgenda #GovernorRickSnyder #antiunionBusting #workersRights

Lansing, MI – Nearly 200 protesters rallied here July 25. They stood for three hours on the steps of the Michigan “Hall of Justice,” to demand an end to Governor Rick Snyder’s use of Emergency Financial Managers (EFM).

The EFM law is a new dictatorial method used by Governor Snyder to impose cutbacks and privatization, as well as violate the local autonomy of elected officials. Snyder, a Republican who campaigned as “the Nerd,” presented himself as likeable and harmless, but he quickly went to work cutting funding, suspending elected officials and taking over school boards and local governments using unelected state appointed Emergency Financial Managers.

As protesters made speeches outside, the Michigan Supreme Court heard the case about an upcoming ballot initiative to do away with Emergency Financial Managers. Over 200,000 signatures were collected on petitions to put the EFM on the ballot for voters to decide in November. Instead of allowing a vote, the ballot to end EFM is being dragged through the courts by Republicans. The Sterling Corporation, which runs a group called Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility is trying to kill, or at least delay, the EFM ballot initiative in court by claiming the font size on the titles of the petitions was too small. In Michigan, this is what ‘democracy’ looks like. The Stand Up for Democracy coalition, which collected the petitions, is forced to eat up time and money in court, instead of campaigning for public support.

Speaking at the rally, Councilman Kermit Williams of Pontiac said, “Governor Snyder’s Public Act Four is not an act for the public, but an act for the corporations.” He added, “The EFM has more power than a governor. They can come in to local government and do what they want. The government has failed us today!”

Led by preachers, the crowd chanted, “Put it on the ballot. Let me vote!” and “The judges don’t decide. We decide!” Speaker after speaker representing African-American activist groups, local government officials and important unions were present: Black Women’s Political Caucus of Muskegon, AFSCME Council 25, UAW Local 6000, National Action Network of Detroit, the Reverend Pinkney of Benton Harbor with the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization (BANCO), Lansing Occupy and the Left Forum of Grand Rapids.

Pat Driscoll, a worker and member of United Steel Workers Local 1299, was in the courtroom with 60 or more people seeking a decision from the Michigan Supreme Court. Coming out of the court, Driscoll said, “They need to let the people vote. These big business types are using technicalities and maneuvers to keep this off the ballot. The Emergency Financial Managers are used to cut public services and break union contracts. It is all to protect the banks’ money after the big bank bailouts, and now the government is selling off assets for bargain prices, privatizing and forcing concessions on workers.” Later Driscoll added, “It is racist too, they are targeting majority African-American areas to start with.”

The Supreme Court is not likely to announce a decision until the end of August, delaying the ballot initiative another six weeks. When the referendum is put on the ballot, the EFM law is automatically suspended until the November vote. There are seven cities and/or school districts with EFM’s: Flint, Pontiac, Ecorse, Benton Harbor, Detroit, Muskegon Heights and Highland Park. The gains of the civil rights movement are being turned back in Michigan.

#LansingMI #privatization #Racism #bugdgetCuts #GovernorRickSnyder

Save the Public Postal Service

Resolution of Letter Carriers Union, Golden Gate Branch 214

Sept. 7, 2011

Whereas, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as a right of the people, the public Post Office has provided universal postal service over many generations, and is continuously rated as the most highly regarded government entity by the American people. Since the 1970 postal strike, which shut down mail service nationwide for four days, postal workers have had good liveable-wage jobs supporting their families in every community, and collective bargaining through their unions; and

Whereas, Postmaster General Donahue wants to eliminate Saturday delivery, shut 3,700 postal facilities, and fire 120,000 workers [220,000 by 2015], despite a no-layoff clause in union contracts. Rep. Issa, chair of the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, wants to void the postal union contracts altogether and open the door to privatization. Their proposals would sabotage and destroy our national treasure – the public Postal Service; and

Whereas, the scheduled service cutbacks will hit seniors, and poor and rural communities the hardest: For example, post offices are being tagged for closing based on the amount of “revenue” they generate, which means that low-income and rural areas, which need their neighborhood post office the most, will no longer have one. Also collection boxes with fewer letters are being removed, hurting service in low-income and rural areas; and

Whereas, just as Governor Scott Walker declared war on Wisconsin workers, what’s coming is a war against the 574,000 unionized postal workers and their families – the next target of the big business class and their henchmen in Congress and the media. Like Reagan’s attack on PATCO, this is an attack on all of Labor, and Labor needs to close ranks with every community now to defend the postal unions and save the public Postal Service.

Therefore be it Resolved, that Golden Gate Branch 214 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, calls on the four postal unions and each of their locals and state associations – as well as central labor bodies and state labor federations in every part of the country, other national and local unions, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win federation, and community allies – to organize a coordinated national and local campaign including mass demonstrations to defend the postal workers, save Saturday delivery, stop the post office closings and layoffs, and save the public Postal Service.

Resolution adopted by NALC Branch 214, at the regular membership meeting on September 7, 2011, in San Francisco, California, by unanimous vote.

#UnitedStates #privatization #postOffice #postalWorkers

McIntosh, a steward with Service Employees International Union (S.E.I.U.) Local 73, is one of the 140 workers who do the billing and collections for the U.I.C. Medical Center. If the top management gets their way, they will replace McIntosh and others with non-union workers, without civil service benefits.

Members of Local 73, nurses from the Illinois Nurses Association, and supporters from Jobs With Justice made up the 60 frosty fighters. Their chants included, “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Privatizing has to go!” Rodney Telomen, co-chair of the I.N.A., had ice on his beard and mustache after picketing in the wind, cold, and snow.

Contracting Out? Or Corruption?

Union workers and nurses at U.I.C. have faced privatizing and contracting out for a number of years. This time around, the attack has a new twist.

The outside agency set to take over the jobs is not really an outside company at all. The “company”, called Wolcott, Wood and Taylor (named for the streets facing the clinics and hospital), was created by the University's Board of Trustees. They gave it the money to start up, backing a $5.5 million loan. Then they provided office space for W.W.T. on campus.

The workers being replaced are Black and Latino, mostly women, with many years of service to U.I.C. But the bosses of Wolcott, Wood and Taylor are top U.I.C. officials, who will continue to draw their high salaries. The Illinois Nurses Association's Rodney Telomen asked, “If there were problems with billing services at U.I.C., why were workers deprived of employment because of management's failure? Vice-chancellor Chip Rice presides over W.W.T., while getting an enormous raise to over $325,000. What's up with that?”

U.I.C.: Profits Above People

Why is this happening now? Sirlena Perry knows. She is an assistant chief steward for Local 73 at U.I.C., and one of the marchers. “The HMO s and insurance companies are the real problem. But people are waking up to it!”

More and more, workers can see that the healthcare corporations make huge profits. So much that they make the public hospitals dance to their tune. They cut into hospitals profits, and then the bosses pass the stress on to workers and patients. Workers are joining with patients, including senior citizens and others, to say that people should be put before profits.

Glenda Searcy, a Local 73 steward and another leader of the threatened workers, said, “We've worked very hard for U.I.C., and now we're being threatened like this. We demand respect and job security.”

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIULocal73 #privatization #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC

La administración del Presidente Bush ha dado a conocer sus planes de iniciar la privatización del seguro social creando cuentas de inversiones personales con los fondos que hasta ahora habían sido destinados a las prestaciones sociales. Dicho plan le permitiría a Wall Street recaudar hasta 15 billones de dólares por año por manejo y asesoría de las cuentas.

Como se sabe, el seguro social es la base para las pensiones de la mayoría de los trabajadores. Se estima que dos tercios de los ancianos reciben más de la mitad de sus ingresos del seguro social y que el 90% del ingreso de un tercio de ellos depende del seguro social. El seguro social asegura además a las familias de los pensionados y a personas permanentemente discapacitadas; de hecho un 30% de las pensiones que otorga el seguro social cubre a personas no pensionadas. Es un programa eficiente, considerando que menos del 1% del total de los impuestos se destina a costos administrativos.

De la misma manera en que la administración Bush utilizó la supuesta amenaza de las armas de destrucción masiva para ganar apoyo para la invasión y ocupación de Iraq, así también creó el mito de que el seguro social quedará en la bancarrota y por esa razón no podrá beneficiar a los trabajadores de hoy.

Si en verdad los cálculos oficiales son correctos y no se efectúa ningún cambio en cuanto a impuestos o prestaciones, el seguro social contará con suficientes fondos para 38 años más. Entonces o se efectúa un recorte de un 25% en las prestaciones o se aumentan en un tercio los impuestos a la nómina de los trabajadores.

En la actualidad los impuestos sobre la nómina de los empleados es de un 12%, con éste se paga el seguro social a los beneficiarios. La mitad proviene de las contribuciones de los trabajadores y la otra mitad proviene de la compañía que los emplea; por consiguiente, los fondos que se deducen del salario del contribuyente habrían aumentado del 6% a un 8% en 40 años.

Los cálculos oficiales son tan poco creíbles como la evidencia de las armas de destrucción masiva. Dichos cálculos se basan en el supuesto de que el número de inmigrantes se vería reducido y de que el crecimiento económico sufriría una baja de más de la mitad, hasta un nivel inferior al de los años que precedieron a la guerra civil cuando la economía estadounidense era eminentemene agrícola.

Quienes apoyan la privatización del seguro social actúan con una doble moral cuando argumentan que el seguro social quedará en la bancarrota porque la economía decaerá de forma dramática, a la vez que prometen un aumento del valor de las acciones de la bolsa basándose en épocas pasadas cuando la economía tuvo un crecimiento a pasos agigantados. La bolsa de valores nos quiere hacer creer que nuestras inversiones aumentarán en la misma medida que el precio promedio de las acciones (aproximadamente un 10% por año en los últimos veinte años). Sin embargo, el inversionista promedio sólo obtuvo gananacias entre un 2% y un 3%, lo cual no es suficiente ni para compensar por la inflación debido a que las gnancias por el alza de las acciones de la bolsa benefician principalmente a la bolsa, y a ejecutivos y demás personas influyentes que manejan el sistema.

La administración Bush oculta el hecho de que hasta una parcial privatización del seguro social tendría un costo de uno a dos trillones de dólares, debido al hecho de que el sistema del seguro social se sostiene gracias a las contribuciones de los trabajadores. Es decir, con las contribuciones que realizan los trabajadores de hoy por medio del pago de sus impuestos, se paga la seguridad social de los pensionados de hoy. Los fondos que se destinen a las cuentas de inversiones privadas tendrían que cubrirse ya sea con aumentos en los impuestos, préstamos, o con la reducción de las prestaciones sociales.

Los fondos del seguro social sufrirán una caída cuando la generación de aquellos que nacieron en la era posterior a la gran depresión y a la segunda guerra mundial (los “baby boomers”) se pensionen en los próximos cinco años y acaben con los fondos del seguro social, el cual cuenta actualmente con un trillón y medio de dólares. Sin embargo, el problema de la solvencia del seguro social a largo plazo se podría resolver de manera significativa si se expandiera la base de los impuestos. Hoy por hoy, el seguro social se sostiene por medio de un sistema regresivo de impuestos a los salarios menores de $87,900. Cualquier ingreso superior a dicha cifra y cualquier ingreso derivado de bienes raíces, bonos, acciones u otro tipo de inversiones no paga impuestos. Sería más justo que el impuesto del seguro social se aplicara a todo ingreso pues así obligaría a pagar impuestos a los que reciben buenos salarios y a los ricos, además de que aumentaría los fondos con que cuenta el seguro social en más de un 20%. De ser adoptada hoy, esa medida generaría suficientes ingresos para solucionar el problema de la disminución en los fondos del seguro social, aún sobre la base de los cálculos oficiales. No obstante, el presidente Bush y el partido republicano trabajan en favor de los ricos y jamás adoptarían esa medida. Por tanto debemos crear conciencia entre los trabajadores sobre el mito de la bancarrota del seguro social y organizarnos para combatir a la administración Bush y a Wall Street que nos quieren despojar de nuestro seguro social.

#SanJoséCA #Analysis #privatization #SocialSecurity

The story was invented by the bosses at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) as an excuse to privatize the custodial work in three buildings on campus. But after workers rallied and lobbied their representatives in the state legislature, management had to agree to a one-year moratorium on outsourcing. This freeze on outsourcing will include existing buildings and those scheduled to open, notably the new College of Medicine Research Building.

State Budget Crisis Forms Backdrop to Contracting Out

The state budget is tight again this year, and the administration at UIC looked to balance their books on the backs of workers. The bosses in Facilities Maintenance know they can pay private cleaning workers $9.00 an hour with few benefits. Building Service Workers at UIC, after years of struggle, make over $14.00 an hour. Already, in a number of new buildings that have opened in the past 9 years on the Chicago campus, outside companies are being used. When they threatened to contract out the existing buildings, English, who is also a union steward with Local 73 SEIU (Service Employees International Unions), said, “It was the foot in the door for privatizing all our jobs. We had to stop it.”

Bill Silver, Division Director for Higher Education for Local 73, explained, “Since 2001, at least 75 positions have been cut from Building Services. Everyone left has been doing two or three peoples’ work. UIC has saved several million dollars a year from these cuts. That’s bad enough. Now they’re threatening the jobs of the people that have already given extra. It’s just not fair.”

In March, management announced their intent to contract out three existing buildings. The announcement came as a surprise to the union. “We had never received any indication from management that there was any problem with the work in those buildings,” said Silver. By late May, the workers had scored a victory by beating back this attack. This came about when Local 73 President Christine Boardman and Bill Silver met with University of Illinois president James Stukel.

That meeting resulted in an agreement to work together to win more money from the state for UIC. One effort will be an amendment to restore funding cut from the previous year’s budget.

The moratorium on outsourcing came because of the strength of the union, shown last year in its efforts to cut bloated administrative salaries; and shown this year in the unity of the workers in opposition to the privatization threat. Local 73 also laid the groundwork when they helped launch a coalition with the Illinois Federation of Teachers to fight for more money for higher education.

Workers and Allies Rally Together

The unity needed to win this agreement came through mass protests by Local 73 workers, together with allies that included other unions. SEIU allies in the state Senate also introduced a bill to ban privatization at state universities.

On April 14, over 120 workers and students marched to the office of UIC Chancellor Manning to deliver a letter opposing the privatization move. Most of these workers were from the second shift, who came in hours early to march. The spirited march gathered strength as it moved across campus, right as students were spilling out of classrooms. An entire writing class fell in line behind the marchers and interviewed dozens of workers about the reasons for the protest.

At the same time, on the Medical Center campus, over 100 Building Service Workers, hospital housekeepers, transporters and other workers showed their solidarity through a ‘Purple Day,’ by wearing purple armbands. “Purple is SEIU’s color, and Purple Day was a big success,” reported Greg Hardison, a steward in Hospital Housekeeping and one of the organizers.

The plan for the armbands was hatched by lunchtime meetings in the hospital cafeteria. “We met right where management could see us,” said steward Randy Evans, after 65 workers finished conferring. “The workers needed to be informed about the union’s efforts against contracting out our jobs.”

Other Unions Under Attack

Mike Malone, business agent for Local 726 of the Teamsters was among those who joined the Local 73 rally and march. Local 726 represents movers and drivers at UIC, and they have been threatened with outsourcing as well. Two weeks earlier, Local 726 workers had joined a picket line called by Teamsters Local 705 to protest scab movers handling UIC work. Local 705 had called an unfair labor practices strike against UIC for contracting out to a private firm that was unionized, which then subcontracted to a scab outfit. As a result of the Teamsters joint picket, UIC has backed off, and the departments that were using the outside movers are having the work done in-house.

Over 50 Teamsters on campus signed a petition in support of Local 73’s fight against privatizing, as did 65 members of the skilled trades unions. They too are being kept out of the new buildings that are going up on campus.

“We Can’t Rest.”

Local 73 steward Tawanda Vaughn addressed the rally at University Hall to, “Thank the students, graduate employees and the other unions that have rallied with us today. We will remember and support you in your struggles as well.”

Jeff McCaster, also a steward, spoke at a lunchtime meeting to report back to workers on the west side of campus. “We can’t rest. We got people moving, we have to keep them moving.” Looking ahead, he went on, “We should bring the work back in-house that has been privatized already. And we should demand they hire back more people.” This idea was warmly received by the second-shift workers in the lunchroom.

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIULocal73 #privatization #outsourcing #UniversityOfIllinoisAtChicagoUIC

Chicago, IL – Since the economy tanked nearly three years ago, workers at the University of Illinois have put up with doing more with less. Building Service Workers have been hit especially hard. There are 80 fewer of them today than there was in 2001.

In addition, the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) campus has had a building boom. Each new building that goes up comes with a poison apple for the Building Service Workers, represented by Local 73 SEIU (Service Employees International Union). Management has hired outside companies to clean them, over the union’s objections.

A line was crossed when the bosses in facilities maintenance tried to privatize the work in existing buildings. A labor-management meeting was called, and over 30 workers showed up two hours early for their shift to pack it. When Greg Parran of UIC Labor and Employee Relations walked in, Bill Silver, division director for Local 73, said, “Tell these workers your plans to take their jobs.” With that, according to Wanda ‘Smiley’ Neely, a union steward, management was so stunned “Their jaws dropped to the floor.”

This action served to put management on notice that they can’t privatize these jobs without a fight.

State Budget Cuts Threaten Workers

Clerical workers at UIC won a big victory last fall. Local 73 SEIU, representing over 1000 employees, won a contract with very good raises. Given the economic crisis, that was a real accomplishment.

Now, Governor Blagojevich is proposing a budget that threatens to rob some of the sweetness from this victory.

The new contract guarantees step increases each year. However, the overall contract raise is pegged to the amount that politicians in Springfield give the university for wages. This year, the governor’s proposal is 2% less than last year.

There is another attack that state workers have been hit with. The state pension funds are being underfunded. Money in these funds is already promised to workers when they retire, but the state is borrowing from them, claiming it will repay them at a later date. Thousands of workers could find themselves without their guaranteed retirement.

Illinois has one of the worst problems with this in the country, because our state pension fund has only 54% of the assets needed to pay its future benefits, a shortfall of almost $35 billion.

Going even further, now the state wants workers to contribute 4% more each year to our pensions. This is a defacto pay cut.

The governor says he has to do these things because he promised “No new taxes.” But he also promised he wouldn’t balance the budget on the backs of the state’s workers. And our pensions are benefits that are guaranteed to us; the politicians are required by law to adequately fund them. These commitments they can break, and yet they can’t raise taxes? Why not? Because the rich refuse to pay their share, and politicians of both parties dance to the tune of the wealthy.

Local 73 is taking part in a coalition of higher education unions and students. A lobby day was held on March 24, where a message was sent to the governor’s mansion: “Workers won’t take a back seat to the rich and the powerful.”

#ChicagoIL #News #BudgetCuts #SEIULocal73 #privatization #UniversityOfIllinoisChicagoUIC

Housekeepers, food service workers, mail handlers, medical assistants, nurse techs, transporters, and others are fighting for wage parity. Willie English, a member of the Service Employee International Union, Local 73 negotiating committee, said, “Local 73 is stronger than ever before. If we stay united, we'll win.”

U.I.C. has a bad relationship with the Black, Puerto Rican, and Mexican communities that surround it. U.I.C. has forced poor residents from their housing; they have a high drop out rate of students from the Chicago Public Schools; they have very few African American or Latino faculty members.

In recent years, Black and Latino state representatives have held two hearings on U.I.C.'s racist practices. Progressive politicians like State Senator Miguel Del Valle and State Representative Connie Howard have joined with workers, community residents, students, faculty and staff to challenge the U.I.C. bosses.

Management is also trying to get concessions at the bargaining table. They want workers to give up precious seniority rights and other union rights. Greg Hardison, a steward in hospital housekeeping, said, “We told our state representatives that we won't trade wage parity for job security. We want both.”

Fighting to Keep Public Jobs

After years of paying Black and Latino workers less than their counterparts downstate, U.I.C. management now threatens their jobs with privatization and contracting out.

Local 73 filed labor charges against Wolcott, Wood, and Taylor – a company U.I.C. started. This so-called 'outside company' is threatening the jobs of the clerical workers who do the billing and collections for the hospital and clinics. The Illinois Education Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against U.I.C. for refusing to bargain over the elimination of these jobs. There will be a hearing in May or June, where the union will expose the anti-union practices of the university.

Local 73 grows in strength

Over 160 Marriott workers in food services at the student union buildings at U.I.C. just organized into Local 73. Along with a group of about 100 workers, who had been members of another union and who voted to switch to Local 73, this brings Local 73's numbers at U.I.C. to over 2000. Sirlena Perry, an assistant chief steward who helped organize the Marriott workers, said, “Now we have to fight for a good contract. We'll get one, or we'll keep fighting Marriott.”

U.I.C. had privatized these jobs 15 years ago. Marriott food service workers make several dollars an hour less than the U.I.C. food service workers. By organizing these workers, SEIU Local 73 sent a message to U.I.C. that “we will follow the work.” Unionizing will cut into the profits U.I.C. has been keeping.

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIULocal73 #privatization #wageParity

Chicago, IL – On April 3, nearly 400 workers and nurses rallied and attended a public hearing against the privatization schemes of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). They are opposed to a secret administration plan to merge the UIC hospital with the private hospital called Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

A fight has been going on here for over a year. Nurses and workers from all departments – housekeeping, food service, transport, medical records, parking, and animal laboratories – are standing together against a common enemy.

That enemy is a gang of top bosses who aim to take this state medical center and make it private. The hospital administration sees that their masters in the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's) and insurance companies are making billions in profit. And they want in on the loot!

Defend Seniority Rights!

April 3 also saw investigative hearings held on the UIC campus with state legislators. The elected representatives from Chicago – Black, Latino, and white – included State Senator Miguel del Valle (a long time supporter of the workers' fight here), a representative of Congressman Danny Davis, and other members of the Legislative Black Caucus.

Following the hearing, the workers marched on the UIC Hospital, where they responded to the threat to eliminate guaranteed seniority rights. Eventually, the picket line swelled to nearly 200 people as work shifts ended and employees came from the hospital and clinics. A giant 25 foot rat was inflated in front of the hospital as workers chanted, “U – I! You rat! Privatize us? We'll see about that!”

The stage for this new round of struggle was set when UIC Medical Center announced they were separating the hospital from the rest of the campus. This means that the workers and nurses would lose their seniority rights. 600 union workers in the hospital are part of Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). As part of UIC's entire campus in Chicago, they are members of a bargaining unit of over 1800 workers. In the event of job cuts, long-term employees should have job security. But as a “separate place of employment,” they would face unemployment.

SEIU filed a lawsuit in the name of chief steward Judy Jones, who has 30 years of seniority in the hospital. Nearly 200 workers turned out for a meeting Feb. 24 to defend their seniority rights.

Speaking for housekeepers, chief steward Louis Diaz said, “For a custodian, the most precious thing is seniority rights.” Housekeepers have been under fire for over a year. Management has repeatedly tried to undermine their seniority. “You start on nights and weekends, but with time, you get some control over your life. It's immoral for management to ask us to give that up.”

SEIU and the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) have filed complaints with the Labor Board against the bosses' plan for a “separate place of employment.” The Labor Board upheld the complaint, handing an important legal victory to the nurses and workers. Seyfarth, Fairwether and Shaw, UIC's notorious union busting law firm, suffered a defeat.

Despite Record Number of Patients, Crisis Still Looms

In the past 10 years, the number of outpatient visits at the UIC Medical Center has doubled. This year there will be nearly 400,000 visits. The number of inpatient visits has also grown. But a number of pressures are combining to make this a crisis atmosphere.

First, the HMOs are taking over more of the healthcare industry, making vast amounts of money. Their shareholders expect 20% rates of return on their investments. In addition, the HMOs are making healthcare workers pay for those profits.

Second, the government is cutting back their support for healthcare for poor people. The Balanced Budget Act that President Clinton signed in 1997 cut Medicaid in '98, and there will be another cut this fall.

Third, the bosses in public hospitals want some of the loot hauled in by the HMOs. At UIC, the top bosses saw their salaries soar in recent years. Chip Rice, the vice-chancellor of Health Services, got an $80,000 a raise this year, from $250,000 to $330,000.

Workers' Backs To The Wall

At UIC, employees are working harder than ever, but still, layoffs are threatened. Over 500 jobs were eliminated from the hospital in the last 4 years. The bosses hired a vicious management company, called the Hunter Group, to force the job cuts. In October, David Coats of the Hunter Group set out plans to cut 100 more jobs. Protests by the SEIU and INA forced the University to send the Hunter Group packing before their contract expired.

But the threat of job cuts still hangs over our heads. The bosses at UIC are reeling from the fight back that has gone on. However, the crisis compels them to attack us again and again. UIC bosses have a plan to get themselves out of the crisis. This involves a merger with the wealthy, private hospital, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

Rodney Telomen, a nurse and a member of the INA negotiating committee, explained what is behind the merger talks. Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's is also hurting from managed care. Telomen said, “Rush is looking for a way out of their $40 million debt. They think that taking over UIC's profitable sections and closing the others will help save them.”

The greedy top management at UIC and Rush made a pact that guarantees that workers will face more attacks.

“Separate place of employment” beaten back

On April 3rd, management made a major concession when faced with the firm opposition of SEIU Local 73, the INA, and their supporters. John DeNardo, CEO of the hospital, sent an e-mail message to all Hospital employees. The memo stated that he is suspending implementation of the “separate place of employment” proposal that had been threatened. The memo said he would not put it into effect until negotiations are held with the unions.

Sirlena Perry, Local 73 assistant chief steward, said, “Workers need to take this victory and fight on, to stop the department by department privatizations that are occurring, and to ensure that UIC Hospital and Clinics remain public.”

A Future of Struggle

In the past period, workers around the U.S. have suffered many setbacks to their wages, rights and working conditions. At UIC, workers have stood up and fought. As Randy Evans, a housekeeper and union steward said, “I'm a warrior. My mother, a founder of the INA at UIC, taught me to fight. We can't stand by and let them implement their master plan.”

Workers at UIC are prepared to do whatever it takes to defend themselves and to keep the medical center public.

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIU #privatization #UniversityOfChicagoHospital #IllinoisNursesAssociationINA

That's how many workers at UICMC first responded in early March when they heard about the strike of hospital workers in El Salvador. A leaflet from Fight Back! explained the Salvadorian workers' fight: against privatization, for their jobs, and for the public's healthcare.

These unionists seized 10 hospitals, and were attacked by the police and army. The strike ended victoriously a few days later after a massive rally of over 20,000 in San Salvador, the country's capitol.

UIC workers face privatization as well. University and state officials are trying to get out of operating a healthcare system that largely serves the poor and minority communities in Chicago. The healthcare corporations in this country are making billions, and they favor privatizing. That way, they can add to their profits the money from the insured patients in the public institutions.

UIC workers have been fighting privatization for over a year. So, when they learned about the request for aid coming from their fellow workers in San Salvador, they didn't hesitate to offer it. Service Employees International Union Local 73 sent a financial contribution to the El Salvadoran strikers, along with a message of support from President Tom Balanoff. Louis Diaz, chief steward of UIC's hospital housekeepers, said, “A couple hundred bucks will go a long way there, and we are glad to offer it.”

#ChicagoIL #News #SEIU #privatization

The Illinois Nurses Association (INA) and workers in Local 73 Service Employees International Union have declared they will fight this to the end. A picket and rally were held October 6 at UIC Hospital, with 100 workers and nurses. October 14, 20 workers and 20 nurses traveled to the Board of Trustees meeting in Urbana to protest.

In recent negotiations, the INA was told that management intends to separate the Hospital from the rest of the campus. This will mean if you are cut from UIC Hospital, you can't bump into other job positions elsewhere at the University of Illinois Chicago. This also fits into the plan of privatization, because Rush wants the work force at UIC Medical Center trimmed further.

“The top doctors and administrators at UIC, and the shareholders of Rush-Prudential HMO, want the workers on our knees, begging for our jobs,” said Sirlena Perry, assistant chief steward of Local 73 at UIC. “But I'll be damned if we will allow them to get away with their scheme.”

Breaking News

The UIC management is getting rid of the job-cutting, anti-labor Hunter group. This is a victory for nurses, and all hospital workers at the Medical Center. Expect more coverage of these developments in the next issue of Fight Back!

#ChicagoIL #News #privatization #IllinoisNursesAssociationINA

The Solidarity Kids' Theater kicked off the Friday night program. The children of union members wowed the crowd with skits they wrote and performed on their own. The hard-hitting skits exposed how the harsh reality of global capitalism impacts on children around the world. The performance received a lengthy standing ovation.

Following that, reports from several important struggles were highlighted with a panel. Speakers included Staughton Lynd, of the Ohio's Youngstown Workers Solidarity Club and Rafael Bernabe, President of the Puerto Rican Union of Professors.

In a far-ranging talk that outlined the failure of capitalism to meet human needs, Lynd linked local issues of privatization to changes in world capitalism. Noting the lack of access to health care in the U.S., as well as poverty and underdevelopment in much of the world, Lynd called for a vision of socialism which dares to think of a better way of life.

With privatization and the struggle against it as a main theme of the Conference, remarks by Rafael Bernabe inspired the audience. He described the fight in Puerto Rico to stop the privatization of the public telephone system. The struggle of telephone workers generated a huge outpouring of public support, and triggered a general strike this past summer. Bernabe characterized the strike as the biggest labor fight in Puerto Rico since the 1930s.

Other speakers Friday night included Anne Meyer, a Teamster and Northwest Airlines flight attendant, who spoke on their continuing campaign to win a fair contract, and Mark Soderstrom from the University of MN Graduate Student Union. President of the Atlanta Central Labor Union, Stewart Acuff, talked about transforming that organization into a more militant body.

Saturday kicked off with remarks by Peter Rachleff, professor and labor activist who framed the threat of privatization as a broad problem impacting the whole economy.

He was followed by experts on privatization and deregulation, workers who are experiencing it, including members or representatives of the Iowa State Postal Union, the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the International Association of Machinists Local 1833, and others.

The speakers pointed out that as long as corporate America sets the agenda, the public will suffer.

The afternoon session, focused on solutions to the problems caused by privatization and deregulation. Rafael Bernabe described in more detail the militancy shown by the population of Puerto Rico last summer in its opposition to privatization of the telephone system; and Stewart Acuff told of the successful fight waged by skilled trades workers in Atlanta to ensure the work at the 1996 Olympics was done by union labor.

“The conference was excellent,” said Steff Yorek, a steward in AFSCME Local 1164. “The process of coming together, learning from each other, and discussing different ways to fight back was invaluable.”

#StPaulMN #SaintPaul #News #privatization #SolidarityKidsTheater #MeetingTheChallenge #deregulation

Commentary

George Bush is trying to scare the American people into privatizing Social Security by claiming that there will be a crisis 40 years from now. Before jumping on the privatization bandwagon, it would be a good idea to look at two countries that already partially privatized their government pension programs: Britain and Argentina.

Following their reelection in 1984, Britain's Conservative Party passed a law allowing workers to opt out of the guaranteed government pension program and into private investment accounts. The Conservatives had already reduced the government pensions by linking them to prices instead of workers wages (another idea the Bush administration is throwing around). The result of privatization? “A bloody mess,” according to the Financial Times, a major business newspaper in Britain.

British government pensions are now the lowest in Western Europe. The privatization scheme cost the government billions of pounds (at current exchange rates a British pound is worth about two U.S. dollars). The real benefits went to insurance companies and other financial institutions that skimmed off as much of 30% of workers' contributions. These so-called investments were so bad that financial companies were later forced to reimburse retirees to the tune of 12 billion pounds. With the private investment accounts in such a mess, a half million British workers gave up their accounts last year and moved back to the government pension system.

Argentina's privatization effort ended up being bad not only for retirees, but also played a part in the country's recent economic crisis. As part of their free-market policies, Argentina partially privatized their government pension program in 1994. Tax revenues were diverted to private accounts, forcing the government to go deeper into debt. Economists Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot estimated that the cost of privatization (including interest) was the same as the Argentine government deficit during the years after 1994. These deficits contributed to the eventual government default on their loans, and the painful economic crisis that saw the Argentine peso lose two-thirds of its value, drove the unemployment rate over 20%, and led to a further cut in government pension benefits.

With a track record like this, why would the Bush administration make such a strong push to privatize social security? It is part free-market ideology and part payback to Wall Street. But whatever the reasons, it is a recipe for disaster – not only for workers, but also for the economy as a whole.

#UnitedStates #Commentary #Argentina #privatization #SocialSecurity #britain

Social Security is the foundation for most workers’ retirement. Two-thirds of the elderly get more than half their income from Social Security benefits, and one-third rely on Social Security for more than 90% of their income. Social Security also insures the families of retirees and the permanently disabled – indeed, about 30% of all Social Security benefits go to non-retirees.

Just as the Bush administration raised the threat of ‘weapons of mass destruction’ to whip up support for the invasion of Iraq, they have created the myth that Social Security will go bankrupt and won’t be there for today’s workers. If the ‘official estimates’ are right, and no changes are made to taxes or benefits, Social Security has enough funding for 38 more years. Then, either benefits would have be cut by 25%, or payroll taxes raised by one-third. Currently, payroll taxes that pay for Social Security are about 12%, half paid for by workers and half by the company, so tax taken out of your paycheck would have to rise from the current 6% to about 8% – in 40 years, mind you!

These so-called estimates are about as flimsy the administration’s evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They are based on the assumption that the number of immigrants will actually decline from today’s level and that economic growth will drop by more than half – to the slowest rate since before the Civil War, when the United States was an agricultural nation.

Supporters of privatization are also two-faced – in that they argue that Social Security will go broke because the economy will slow dramatically, but then they hold out the promise of big increases in stock prices based on past history when the economy grew quickly. Wall Street also wants you to believe that your investments would rise at the same rate as the average stock price (about 10% a year over the last twenty years). In fact, the typical stock investor only saw between a 2 to 3% gain, not even enough to keep up with inflation, since the benefits of rising stock prices mainly went to Wall Street, corporate executives and other insiders who rig the system.

The Bush administration also would like to hide the fact that even a partial privatization of Social Security would cost one to two trillion dollars. This is because Social Security is a ‘pay-as-you-go’ system, where today’s workers pay taxes that pay today’s retirees’ benefits. The monies diverted to private retirement accounts would have to be made up in higher taxes, more borrowing or lower benefits.

Social Security will have a funding shortfall as the baby boom generation, born after the Depression and World War II, begins to retire in the next five years and run down the Social Security trust fund, which has about a $1.5 trillion in it right now. But the long-term funding problem for Social Security could be largely solved if the tax base was expanded. Right now Social Security is paid for by a regressive tax system that only taxes wages and salaries up to $87,900. Any pay above that, and any income from real estate, stocks, bonds or other investments are not taxed at all. Expanding the current Social Security taxes to cover all income would not only be fairer, by taxing the incomes of the well-paid and wealthy, but would also increase tax revenue by more than 20%. If started now, this would be more than enough to cover the Social Security shortfall, even under the unrealistic ‘official’ estimate.

But Bush and the Republican Party work for the rich, and would never take this step. So for now, we will need to educate workers about the myth of ‘Social Security bankruptcy’ and organize to fight the Bush administration and Wall Street’s grab for our Social Security benefits.

#SanJoseCA #Analysis #privatization #SocialSecurity

Republicans defended this move by pointing to the rapid growth of the economy from July to September of 2003, when production grew at an 8.2% rate, the fastest in almost twenty years. But during that same three months, the economy only produced a total of 77,000 new jobs – when a typical recovery would produce almost ten times as many jobs. In November, the Department of Labor report on unemployment showed that more than 2 million people, or almost one out of every four unemployed, had been without work for six months or more, the highest fraction in more than twenty years. The unemployment rate, at 5.9%, was actually higher in November than it was when the extended unemployment benefit program was first passed in March 2002.

What is really behind the Republicans’ decision is their thinking that unemployment benefits keep people from taking the low-paying jobs. Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada said, “The more generous the benefit, the easier you make it to stay on unemployment insurance, and the less incentive you have to actually go out and do what it takes to find a job.”

While the Republicans have to cut unemployment benefits in public, private businesses are evading their unemployment insurance taxes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. Many employers are calling their workers ‘independent contractors’ to avoid unemployment insurance taxes, costing workers their benefits if they are laid off. Employer errors also led to underpayment of more than a billion dollars in benefits to jobless workers in 2002.

In the last two years, New York, Texas, Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and North Carolina have been forced to borrow from the federal government when their state benefits funds ran out of money. Businesses have pushed for lower taxes, and now that the funds are running out of money, they want to cut unemployment benefits. Here in California, the state will have to borrow over a billion dollars to cover unemployment benefits in 2004. Business leaders are pushing to stop a $40 a week increase in benefits, which they say are too high, even though the average benefit is only $236 a week. While this is more than what most other states pay, California has one of the lowest benefits when compared to average wages (not to mention the cost of living).

The cuts in unemployment benefits are part of a larger plan to slash and privatize government services and the safety net. First came welfare ‘reform’ in 1996, and now the Medicare ‘reform’ which opens the door to privatization using the promise of expanding drug coverage. The Bush administration still wants to privatize social security, public education and the Post Office.

#SanJoseCA #Analysis #crisisOfCapitalism #unemploymentInsurance #privatization