The bids can be used to examine the contractor s practices and show how public employees can do the job more efficiently and effectively. Bids can be prepared on work time. There is access to information and technical assistance. Responsible contracting standards are built in for every proposal, whether public and private. Even after privatization has been proposed, there s still time to introduce legislation limiting or prohibiting it.
Hearings can offer an important forum for making the public case against privatization.
And supporting the legislation can provide a focus for membership mobilization, community organizing, and political action. Under a collective bargaining law that obligates the employer to bargain over wages, hours and conditions of employment, the impact of the decision to contract-out is generally considered a mandatory subject of bargaining. Courts have ruled that an employer s contracting-out of unit work without bargaining with the union is an unfair labor practice. In jurisdictions with strong civil service laws, the principles of selection on the basis of merit and just cause in dismissals may enable civil service personnel to retain their jobs and not give them up to employees of a private contractor doing similar work. There may also be protections against privatization in a state constitution or a city or county charter.