CONTRACTING OUT

WHEREAS, nothing is more basic to the role of the American labor movement than the defense of a worker's job and the guarantee of equal protection of working conditions. For public employees, this protection is now jeopardized by the contracting out of their work to private business contractors. Public employees are told, in effect, that if they bargain for increased wages and fringe benefits and insist on a decent standard of living, the public employer will contract out the work. They are told it can be done cheaper by private business contractors. Standards of workplace decency that have taken years to establish are threatened with overnight extinction when the employer decides to contract our work:

RESOLVED, that the AFT supports the principle that public work which has traditionally been performed by public employees should continue to be performed by public employees, and that public work which has traditionally been performed by private employees should continue to be performed by private employees.