In another sorry spectacle of privatization this year, the Clinton Administration completed the turnover of government uranium enrichment to a private corporation. The now-nearly bankrupt U.S. enrichment company has closed one enrichment facility, fired almost 1,800 unionized workers and came running to the Administration for a financial bailout. The handling of this critical radioactive material is in question, the savings to taxpayers has been nil, and union families have been devastated. In spite of the obvious flaws in privatization or rather, because of the financial opportunities created by these flaws privatization is growing to epidemic proportions. Over thirty states and the District of Columbia now assign some part of their prison population to privately run prisons.
Privatization is a threat to all public services.
In many cities, privatization has invaded the public school system, threatening the quality of our children s education in the pursuit of private profits. The welfare reform legislation of 1996 created opportunities for private administration of state public assistance programs. Among the conglomerates chomping at the bit to administer elements of the new Temporary Assistance to Needy Families are EDS, Anderson Consulting and Lockheed Martin. When privatization takes off, many public sector employees, most of them unionized, are displaced by lower-paid, nonunion corporate employees or even by machines. In the last two years, UE Local 893 in Iowa has fought off several privatization schemes, including a 1998 plan to contract out child welfare services.