SEIU Statement on the MNPS Privatization Budget
SEIU Local 205 President Doug Collier made the following statement at the MNPS Board Meeting on June 8...
I’ve thought long and hard about what I would say to this body when I was again able to stand before you. So many things that I want to say simply shouldn’t be said in such a public venue. But the thing I keep coming back to and that I think I want to say most is shame on you.
I’m sure you’re not aware of the mission statement of SEIU Local 205, so I will share it with you. Our mission is to unite and improve the lives of Tennessee workers and their families by raising the collective standard by which work is valued. Let me repeat that… raising the collective standard by which work is valued.
Allegedly, part of your vision statement says - Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools will provide every student with the foundation of knowledge, skills and character necessary to excel in higher education, work and life. Right now, it’s looking like this board is 0 for 3.
It was obvious to anyone watching the spectacle you made at the budget hearing before the council last Thursday that the majority of you sitting here are totally unqualified to provide anyone with a foundation of character. You have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that your priorities have nothing at all to do with equipping our children to be better members of society.
You spout platitudes about educating the children of Nashville, but what are you really teaching our children?
You’re teaching them that if you don’t have an important position or make a lot of money in this society, you are worth less. In other words….worthless.
You’re teaching them that even if you work hard and are loyal for years, if you’re not in a position of power, you are worth less.
You’re teaching them that classism usually still equals racism and that if you are on the wrong side of that equation, you are worth less.
You as a body are teaching our children that sometimes it’s ok to do something completely wrong, just because you can, as long as the people you are beating up on are worth less than you.
While we could have been able to work together to achieve our separate but not mutually exclusive visions, this Board elected to ignore our efforts at compromise and bridge building. You have chosen instead to disenfranchise the custodians and groundskeepers of their right to the duly established political process of the Metropolitan Nashville Government by sneaking around the Metro Council budget process and signing the GCA contract before they could even have a hearing on your budget.
Yet another shameful act on your part.
So I leave you today not in anger, but rather in pity. The good men and women that you’ve tried to make worthless will go on and be good employees for someone else, even though it will be for less money and less benefits. But you, the members of the Metropolitan Nashville Board of Education, have indeed proven to be worth less.
Workers and Metro Council Bash Privatization in Schools
Custodian John Oden talks about the dangers of privatization in Metro Schools.
June 04, 2010
After two days of meetings by the Metro Council, workers and elected officials bashed the School Board for their handling of this year's budget. The budget, which was approved in a 5-4 vote by the Board, proposed that nearly 700 custodians and groundskeepers be outsourced to a private company called GCA Services.
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During his State Of Metro Address, Mayor Karl Dean said that he will “fully fund” the School Board’s request of $633 million for next year’s budget. What he didn’t say, and what a lot of people don’t know, is that a “fully funded” budget does not solve the issue of outsourcing nearly 700 custodians and groundskeepers in MNPS.
It is important for SEIU members and all employees at MNPS to understand that the fight is not over yet. Custodians and groundskeepers are still on target to lose their jobs, pay, and benefits on July 1 unless we continue to fight. How can we do that?
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Channel 4's Nancy Amons uncovered more about GCA Services Group. GCA is one of the contractors bidding on the custodial and groundskeeping contract and have been meeting secretly with MNPS administrators since last year to get the job. Now, WSMV learns that GCA has a bad track record with hiring its employees who clean public schools by hiring rapists, thieves, and perverts.
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Local media uncovered a big story this week about Dr. Jesse Register's plan to outsource custodial and groundskeeping services in Metro Schools.
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SEIU Local 205 released a series of internal emails that reveal that administrators at Metro Nashville Public Schools have been working behind closed doors to push forward a plan to privatize custodians and groundskeepers as far back as November, 2009. The union also found that Dr. Register’s statements of a $5 million dollar cost savings to the district were based on a claim made by one of the contractors who is bidding on the project, not through a scientific cost-benefit analysis or impact study.
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Custodians Lobby Their Council Members
Custodian Frank Hunter Lobbies Councilman Lonnell Matthews
April 22, 2010
Dozens of custodians and groundskeepers who work in Metro Schools flooded the Metro Council on Tuesday to meet their council member and share their concerns about the possibility of their jobs being outsourced to a private contractor.
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Local Clergy & Employees Pray to Save Jobs
Custodian Gerald Johnson prays alongside bus drivers and local elected officials.
April 13, 2010
Over 120 custodians, grounds keepers, bus drivers, and concerned citizens gathered in front of the Metro Courthouse at high noon as local clergy led a Prayer Vigil in support of school employees. The gathering, which was covered by all the major local media outlets, was held as Dr. Jesse Register and the Metro School Board presented their budget to Mayor Karl Dean.
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Hundreds of custodians and groundskeepers who work in Metro schools all across Davidson County poured into the Union Hall throughout the day for special-called Emergency Meetings to discuss the budget fight.
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You can’t work or live in Metropolitan Nashville without hearing about the financial crisis MNPS is facing. This is a financial crisis as well as a human crisis.
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The Metro Nashville School Board voted by a vote of 5-4 to approve a proposed budget that, among other things, would outsource some 700 support staff jobs.
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Once again, close to 500 people turned out at a public hearing to say NO to Jesse Register's proposal to outsource custodians and cut bus drivers' pay. This meeting was held by the Metro Council's education committee thanks to a resolution that the council approved because of the problems at the School Board's public hearing on March 11.
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SEIU Local 205 president Doug Collier wrote this editorial on the MNPS budget, which appeared in Sunday's Tennessean:
The Metro School Board is set to vote on a budget proposed by schools director Jesse Register on Tuesday. Among other things, Register proposes to privatize custodial positions across the district. This was tried back in the early 90’s in Metro and the experiment was an unmitigated disaster. Schools were dirty, turnover was high, and countless thousands of dollars of Metro and private property was stolen out of our schools. This was bound to happen because privatization encourages companies with a profit motive to hire minimum wage workers with no stake in the school system. In the end, Metro ended their experiment in privatization and went back to using city employees who they could hold accountable.
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Nearly 500 workers and concerned citizens flooded the Metro Nashville Public Schools administration building to voice their outrage at schools director Jesse Register's proposed budget.
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SEIU Local 205 President Doug Collier made the following statement at the MNPS Public Hearing on March 11 on behalf of the support staff that work in Metro Schools...
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