By Cole Weintraub, Labor Notes
Forty-three years after the sanitation strike that Martin Luther King
was assassinated while supporting, placards declaring "I AM A MAN"
reappeared in Memphis. The union King backed has found its jobs on the
brink of privatization.

AFSCME Local 1733 mobilized civil-rights supporters and the city's
534 sanitation workers with an all-day picket of City Hall in 100 degree
temperatures June 7. Council members debated layoffs and furloughs but
adjourned without taking action.

The plight of Memphis sanitation workers is still an emotional issue
four decades after the strike, which was sparked by the death of two
workers due to a faulty trash compactor. The strike developed into a
rallying point for the African-American community in their struggle
against the city's white establishment.

Racial overtones surfaced again in the privatization fight, which
appeared suddenly last month. One councilman dismissed the 1968 struggle
as belonging to another era. Another said privatization represented the
next step of "change" for which King -- and President Obama -- fought, a
suggestion that horrified civil-rights veterans.

The city faces a $60 million budget shortfall and council members are
selling the privatization proposal with claims it could save about $18
million a year. Local media support the bid uncritically.

At the council meeting, a Firefighters official called for the city
to restore a property tax worth $20 million a year, which was eliminated
three years ago. He accused white council members of looking out for
their gated communities and not the city as a whole.

The city is also considering deep cuts to disability and retirement
benefits, decreased funding to fire and police departments, a moratorium
on the living wage for city contractors, and the elimination of funding
to city workers' education programs.

Michael Williams of the Police Officers Association linked the
situation in Memphis to "an attack on labor unions all across the
nation."

Unions rallied nationwide April 4 to honor Dr. King's sacrifice and
make plain that the struggle for rights and dignity that he died
supporting is still very much alive among public workers.

Memphis unions have formed a coalition to resist the cuts, and have
maintained unity despite the city's attempts to buy off individual
unions with reduced cuts.

They've produced pro-labor YouTube videos, distributed fliers,
picketed together, and cooked for each other. Council members have been
enraged by videos questioning their decisions, posted to TennesseeLaborCoverage.com, a blog created by local labor activists.'68 Veterans Still at Work

The sanitation union's significance is not lost on current workers,
one in five of whom was involved in the 1968 strike but is unable to
retire due to lack of a pension.

A council member has proposed buying out the older workers with a $75,000 lump sum.

Sanitation workers say privatization won't necessarily save money: Cost overruns combined with the cost of contract monitoring and
administration often make it more expensive than in-house services.
According to a 2007 survey by the International City/County Management
Association, more than one in five local governments has brought
previously outsourced services back in house.

In most cases insufficient cost savings were cited as a primary
reason. And where contracting out does produce savings, they typically
come from lower wages and benefits for workers -- not the supposed inherent
superiority of private contractors. Sanitation workers currently make
$14.50 to $27 an hour.

Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton, an African-American Democrat, favors "managed competition," or submitting city services to bidding by private
contractors.

The council delayed a decision on privatization for two weeks in an
attempt to force a union compromise, leaving sanitation workers and
their supporters to continue a struggle they've carried on for four
decades.* * *
Cole Weintraub is a Tennessee labor activist.