Making the news in Baltimore

City Union of Baltimore (CUB) president Sheila Jordan started the new year with a message to Baltimore's citizens--and especially Mayor Martin O'Malley. In an opinion piece published by the Baltimore Sun, Jordan cautions the community against privatization of public services, saying "[it] always sounds good, but in other cities it has resulted in the loss of accountability, expertise and infrastructure."

Jordan's op/ed represents the union's continued effort to refute a summer 2000 chamber of commerce report, which criticized public workers and called for widespread privatization of city services. Jordan, noting that the business group did not interview frontline workers for its report, which included 250 recommendations for change, says CUB will issue its own report on city services, including the union's ideas for improvements.

"Quite simply, private contractors live off public funds but are not accountable to the public when things go wrong," Jordan writes. "Often, privatization also means the loss of stable workers whose families anchor a city's life....Like our mayor, we seek a more efficient and attractive city. We, too, know that our jobs depend on it. We are the workers who will make it happen."

Common concerns unite unionists worldwide

Collective bargaining rights, privatization, basic issues of dignity and respect for public workers--during a fall 2000 meeting of international labor representatives, FPE/AFT leaders were reminded that U.S. unions are fighting the same basic battles as their counterparts across the globe.

FPE/AFT program and policy council (PPC) chair Jim McGarvey attended the Public Services International (PSI) Executive Board Meeting and Inter-American Regional Meeting in Panama in November with George Springer, president of the FPE/AFT-affiliated Connecticut Federation of Educational & Professional Employees and PPC member, and FPE/AFT department director Steve Porter. PSI is a federation of international trade unions that is composed of more than 500 unions in more than 140 countries.

One of the hottest topics discussed was globalization in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Concerns abound among labor groups over the WTO's impact on national and international economies and failure to require core labor standards in trade agreements. In the context of privatization, labor leaders in attendance discussed the threat GATS poses to the vitality and affordability of public services.

"It is good for us to know the struggles of our brothers and sisters in the rest of the world," says McGarvey. "It is significant that many of their problems are our problems."