Privatization

Push Back Against Privatization Of Postal System

August 4, 2014 David Morris, www.alternet.org Resist! boycott, Labor, Postal Service, Privatization

The United States Postal Service (USPS) management just ran into a possible game-changing obstacle to its shameful pursuit of a fully privatized post office: labor solidarity Here’s the background. For a decade the USPS has been aggressively shrinking, consolidating, and outsourcing the nation’s postal system. In July 2011 management upped the ante by announcing the rapid closure of 3600 local post offices, a step toward the eventual closing of as many as 15,000, half of all post offices in the nation. A groundswell of opposition erupted. Citizens in hundreds of towns mobilized to save a treasured institution that plays a key and sometimes defining role in their communities. In December 2011, after Congress appeared ready to impose a six-month moratorium on closures USPS management voluntarily adopted a freeze of the same length. In May 2012, the moratorium ended but management, possibly concerned about reviving a national backlash, embraced an ingenious stealth strategy. Rather than closures, management moved to slash hours at 13,000 post offices. That could be accomplished quickly. Reduction in hours, unlike outright closures, requires little justification. Appeals are limited. Moreover a reduction in hours doesn’t generate the same level of outrage as a closure. The building remains open even though its value to the community is dramatically diminished.

Corporations Creating Life-Threatening Water Shortage

August 3, 2014 Carl Gibson, www.occupy.com Educate! Corporatism, Privatization, Water

Imagine the swift and fierce government response if Al-Qaeda took a precious resource out of a delicate environment, sold it for profit and endangered 40 million people in the process. Now compare that example to the nonexistent government response to American energy companies, golf courses and corporations like Nestlé taking 75 percent of the groundwater out of the Colorado River Basin at a time when the American West is facing a record drought. Corporations will continue to abuse their constitutional protections as legal “persons” until fresh water has become fully privatized, or until corporate constitutional rights are eliminated with a constitutional amendment. Depleting a Precious Resource Nestlé has two plants on the Colorado River Basin that take in water to bottle and sell under its Arrowhead and Pure Life brands. One is in Salida, Colorado, on the eastern edge of the Upper Basin; the other is in the San Gorgonio Pass, halfway between San Bernardino and Indio, Calif., on the western edge of the Lower Basin. According to annual reports filed up to 2009, Nestlé bottles between 595 and 1,366 acre-feet of water per year – enough to flood that many acres under a foot of water – from the California source. The company takes 200 additional acre-feet per year from the Colorado source. This means altogether Nestlé is draining the Colorado River Basin of anywhere from 250 million to 510 million gallons of water per year, according to the acre-feet-to-gallons conversion calculator.

USDA Plans To Privatize Poultry Inspection

August 1, 2014 Food & Water Watch, www.foodandwaterwatch.org Resist! Food and Agriculture, health, Privatization, Regulation

“Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released the final rule that will transfer most poultry inspection from government inspectors to the companies so they can police themselves. With the poultry industry standing to gain financially due to increased production and fewer regulatory requirements, the plan is a gift from the Obama administration to the industry, one that will undermine consumer and worker safety, as well as animal welfare. “One of the changes that has been made to the original proposed rule is to cap the line speed in chicken slaughter facilities at 140 birds per minute, instead of 175 birds per minute. This is not a meaningful victory because there are not accompanying worker safety regulations to deal with the musculoskeletal disorders and other work-related injuries that both the plant workers and USDA inspectors suffer every day working in the poultry slaughter plants. In addition, the one USDA inspector left on the slaughter line under this new rule will still have to inspect 2.33 birds every second – an impossible task that leaves consumers at risk. “The change in regulations was first proposed in January of 2012, but after strong opposition from consumer organizations, worker safety advocates and animal welfare groups, its implementation was delayed. When the comment period closed on the proposed rule, USDA had received over 175,000 public comments – most of them opposed to the proposal.

Staples Misled Public On Postal Service Deal

July 17, 2014 Undernews, www.prorevnews.blogspot.com Educate! boycott, Labor, Post Office, Privatization, Staples

American Postal Workers - The announcement by Staples yesterday, indicating it is terminating its no-bid deal with the U.S. Postal Service and replacing it with an “approved shipper” program, “is a ruse,” says American Postal Workers Union President Mark Dimondstein. Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the program, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Dimondstein says the Staples announcement, along with a July 7 letter from the USPS, “makes it clear. They intend to continue to privatize postal retail operations, replace living-wage Postal Service jobs with low-wage Staples jobs and compromise the safety and security of the mail.” He adds: This attempt at trickery shows that the ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ movement is having an effect. We intend to keep up the pressure until Staples gets out of the mail business. The U.S. Mail Is Not for Sale.

Tent City Is Up At Staples!

July 17, 2014 Occupy Oakland, www.occupyoakland.org Resist! Post Office, Privatization, Protest, Staples

The protest at Staples took on new dimensions today at 5:00 PM in the shape of small, but Occupyable tents between the sidewalk and the Staples parking lot in Berkeley on Durant between Shattuck and Milvia. Peeps from Berkeley Post Office Defenders and Occupy San Francisco are among the participants. As one of the campers said, “We’re here until Staples’ Post Offices aren’t.” The United State Postal Service and Staples began a pilot program back in October of 2013 whereby full-service Post Office stations were installed in some Staples around the country. But instead of being staffed by Postal Workers at living wage salaries they are being staffed by subsistence wage Staples employees. The American Postal Workers Union began protests and a boycott back in January, 2014. The boycott has been adopted nationwide by a large number of unions in recent months and has put serious pressure on Staples. A 24/7 table was set up in front on the Berkeley Staples on Shattuck just about a month ago, handing out literature and Boycott Staples postcards.

Victory For Postal Workers As Staples Drops Postal Plan

July 16, 2014 Michelle Sturman, www.opi.net Resist! Privatization, Staples, Unions, USPS

The company said that it would discontinue the pilot programme – which was announced last November – in the coming weeks and instead would become an ‘approved shipper’ for the US Postal Service (USPS). The APWU called the Staples’ move a ‘ruse’ in a statement from its President Mark Dimondstein, stating “this attempt at trickery shows that the ‘Don’t Buy Staples’ movement is having an effect”. In an interview with the Boston Globe, a USPS spokesperson remarked that the postal service looked forward to continuing the partnership and postal services will continue at the 82 Staples locations used in the pilot scheme. The Union said it would keep up the pressure on the reseller until it gives up the mail business. “Staples and the USPS are changing the name of the programme, without addressing the fundamental concerns of postal workers and postal customers,” the union stated.

A New Game Plan For Taking Down Privatizers

July 16, 2014 Sam Pizzigati, www.nationofchange.org Educate! Corruption, Inequality, Politics, Privatization

Analysts at the OECD, the Paris-based economic research agency, have just shared a grim prediction: If current trends “prevail,” all developed nations will show by 2060 “the same level of inequality as currently experienced by the United States.” If we let those current trends continue, that conclusion sounds about right. But why on earthshould we let those trends continue? The trends that have made our world so unequal don’t reflect some inevitable unfolding of globalization. They reflect wrong-headed political decisions. We can make different decisions. Take privatization. Over the past four decades, governments all around the world have chosen to privatize a broad array of public services. These privatizations have generated vast new concentrations of private wealth, among them the $75 billion fortune of Carlos Slim, the world’s second-richest single individual.

If FDA Rule Goes Through You Will Not Be Able To Trust Meat Safety

July 11, 2014 Food & Water Watch, www.commondreams.org Educate! Food and Agriculture, health, Privatization, Regulation

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget a final rule that would dramatically reduce the number of trained USDA inspectors in poultry slaughter plants and replace them with company employees. The USDA estimated in the proposed rule that the industry will stand to gain $260 million annually because of increased production and fewer regulatory requirements with no guarantees of improved food safety. “This rule, which essentially privatizes poultry inspections, serves up the huge gift of deregulation to the meat industry,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “If the White House acquiesces, it will be a disaster for workers and consumers who want to know that the poultry they are eating is safe.” The rule was first proposed on January 27, 2012 and received over 175,000 public comments overwhelmingly opposed during the comment period. Earlier this year, over 100 groups sent a letter to President Obama and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack urging them to withdraw the rule and another 220,000 consumers expressed their opposition to the proposed rule. Occupational safety and worker justice communities also overwhelmingly oppose the rule.

Activists Shut Down Seneca Biomass Plant

July 8, 2014 Cascadia Forest Defenders, www.earthfirstjournal.org Resist! Cascadia, Environment, pollution, Privatization, Protest

Scores of activists with Cascadia Forest Defenders and Earth First! converged on the Seneca Jones biomass plant this morning to protest the company’s privatization of public lands in the Elliott State Forest and ongoing pollution in West Eugene. Currently several people have locked themselves to equipment at the plant, effectively blocking the “truck dump” where biomass is loaded into the incinerator. A banner has been dropped off of a tower reading: “Seneca Jones: Privatizing the coast range, polluting West Eugene.” The activists are bringing attention to Seneca Jones Timber’s role in privatizing the Elliott State Forest. This month Seneca closed on their purchase of 788 acres in the Elliott, called East Hakki Ridge. Co-owner of Seneca Kathy Jones recently expressed the company’s intention to clearcut East Hakki and replace it with Douglas fir plantation. Cascadia Forest Defender Richard Haley commented, “However Kathy Jones paints it, her company is a bad neighbor everywhere it operates. Here in Eugene, Seneca pollutes. In the Elliott, Seneca clearcuts and puts up ‘no trespassing’ signs in pristine, never before logged forest. East Hakki is no longer a place where locals can go hunt, fish, hike, camp or watch birds. Now it is corporate property.”

Detroit Citizens Vow Direct Action

July 2, 2014 Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org Resist! Detroit, Human Rights, Privatization, Resistance, Water

Rallying on the steps of the Michigan governor's office in Detroit, activists and religious leaders on Monday called for an immediate moratorium on the city's plan to shut off water to tens of thousands of households. “This is everybody's fight, water is a human right!” the protesters chanted. In recent weeks, activists in Detroit have mobilized against the city's efforts to cut off the water supply to 120,000 delinquent accounts, or over 300,000 city residents. News of the shut-offs has spread following a statement issued last week by the United Nations that the city's plan "constitutes a violation of the human right to water." Now, with Detroit under the media microscope, activists are hoping that the state government halts its plan to deprive residents of this essential human right and instead adopt an affordable payment plan based on an individual's income. The threat has catalyzed many individuals and groups in the community to act. The Detroit Water Brigade, which has begun distributing water and information to Detroiters facing shut off, vowed: "We are prepared to take direct action to prevent shut-offs if the city does not immediately cease and desist."

Will Detroit’s Water Be Privatized Or Recognized As Commons?

June 30, 2014 Halima Cassells, www.shareable.net Educate! Commons, Detroit, Privatization, Water

When it comes to a person’s fundamental needs being met - nothing is more basic and human, than to share. Right now the people of Detroit are being attacked by an unelected regime that represents the interests of the banks and large corporations. Their latest campaign has been to turn residents’ water off. Approximately 300,000 people shut off from water, because this makes sense in their corporate model. Detroiters sharing with neighbors hits all-time high. Water is life. We are all 85% water. Water is a Human Right. Happening right now in Detroit, next to the Great Lakes (25% of the fresh water for the world), under the guise of bankruptcy; residents are being targeted and pushed out of their homes and subjected to unreasonable rate hikes, in a bid to ultimately privatize Detroit’s water. "We are not saying that the services of running water should be free, we are saying it should be affordable and accessible by all, and we have put forth the Water Affordability Plan to that end, which was approved by our city council," says Priscilla Dziubek, of the Peoples Water Board.

‘Stop Staples’ Movement Growing

June 16, 2014 American Postal Workers Union, www.apwu.org Resist! boycott, Labor, Post Office, Privatization, Unions

June 13, 2014 - SEIU 32BJ, representing 145,000 union members in 11 states and the District of Columbia, is boycotting all Staples retail stores in the U.S., Staples.com and Staples Advantage, as well as all Staples branded proprietary products. “We will no longer be using Staples as our union’s office supplier, and we will be actively encouraging our members and allies to refrain from doing business with your company,” SEUI 32BJ President Héctor Figueroa said in a June 11 letter [PDF] to Staples CEO Ronald Sargent. “It is unfortunate that we must take this action, but we strongly oppose your pilot program with the U.S. Postal Service to establish postal retail units in your stores staffed by low-wage, non-union, non-postal employees,” he wrote. “The Postal Service is the largest single civilian employer of union middle-class jobs for African Americans, and Veterans (including disabled veterans), and is the largest single civilian union employer. We need more of these types of jobs to strengthen our economy and the middle class, and we will not accept your efforts to undermine them through low-wage privation.”

Teachers Sound Alarm Over ‘Anti-Public Education’ Ruling

June 14, 2014 Sarah Lazare, www.commondreams.com Educate! Education, Labor, Law, Privatization

In a ruling with broad implications for public education across the United States, a California court on Tuesday struck down key workplace protections for the state's public school teachers by siding with student plaintiffs—backed by powerful political forces— who claimed such policies negatively impacted the quality of their learning. Issued by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu, the decision sparked outrage from teachers unions and public education advocates across the country. "Like the lawsuit itself, today’s ruling is deeply flawed," said Dean Vogel, president of the California Teacher's Association, in a statement about the decision. "This lawsuit has nothing to do with what’s best for kids, but was manufactured by a Silicon Valley millionaire and a corporate PR firm to undermine the teaching profession and push their agenda on our schools.” "This suit is not pro-student. It is fundamentally anti-public education, scapegoating teachers for problems originating in underfunding, poverty, and economic inequality.” —Joshua Pechthalt, CFT president

Overcoming The Shock Doctrine

June 14, 2014 Soy Publica, www.guerrillatranslation.com Strategize! Capitalism, Commons, Latin America, Privatization, Strategize

Lately, we’ve been talking about the techniques of manipulation used by the government and mass media, regarding the privatization of public education, and all public benefits. In these first months of legislature, the better part of this manipulation has been aimed at rendering us into a state of shock, after which, intimidated and paralyzed, we would not react against the losses of rights brutally imposed on us. The measures, announcements and declarations of the autonomic and central governments are meted out to us day by day, gradually, like a poisonous drip of constant anxiety. Relentlessly, the media – in some cases, better to say “propagandists” – continues their tireless preaching, like a disheartening echo of bad news from on high (from the council of ministers or the rating agencies). Naomi Klein explains in her book, “The Shock Doctrine”, how neo-liberalism, unable to convince people by means of argument (since these neo-liberal measures are essentially anti-people), has only been able to impose itself via coups d’etat, declarations of war, situations of catastrophic natural disaster, or other traumatic phenomena, leaving the public in the grip of anxiety and fear.

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