Norm Swenson's letter
World Water Day of Mourning

February 28, 2001
Dear Members of the House Labor and Commerce Committee:

On behalf of our 5,000 members at 28 Illinois community colleges, I request you vote "do pass" on HB 655. HB 655 will repeal that part of HB 206 which took away bargaining rights for employees in the City Colleges of Chicago.

No public hearings were held on the amendment to HB 206 when HB 206 was approved by the House and Senate in 1995. The amendment to HB 206 affecting City Colleges was approved by both legislative bodies within a 12-hour period on the last day of the session.

No other Illinois community college had its bargaining rights taken away. Why are City Colleges employees singled out as second class citizens? Why are we denied equal rights under the Illinois Constitution?

HB 206 was justified by the educational "crisis" in Chicago Public Schools. But there is no "crisis" in the City Colleges and the reform legislation of HB 206 was never intended to apply to City Colleges. Three of the City Colleges branches, Olive-Harvey, Malcolm X and Daley, were recently granted an unprecedented 10-year accreditation by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges.

In the City Colleges, employees earned their right to collective bargaining by years of effort. In 1995 when the legislature passed HB 206, 30 years of free collective bargaining about non-economic matters was declared "null and void" and City Colleges employees were "prohibited" from discussing class size, calendar, work load, hours of employment and other subjects with the City Colleges Board. Why were these rights which we earned over 30 years taken away? The legislature didn't give us these rights; the legislature should not deny us the rights we earned without the legislature's help by free collective bargaining with the City Colleges Board.

HB 655 has bipartisan support. Three Republican House members have become co-sponsors along with 13 Democrats. The Republicans include Eileen Lyons, Angelo Saviano and Roger McAuliffe.

By voting "do pass" on HB 655 you will demonstrate you support the right of educational employees to free collective bargaining, and that you oppose discriminatory laws unfairly aimed at the employees of City Colleges. Other City Colleges unions which support repeal of HB 206 include Dick Phelan of the Operating Engineers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the SEIU, AFSCME, and the Firemen and Oilers. All of us represent City Colleges employees.

Thank you for your time. If you have questions, I would be pleased to answer them. Submitted by Norman G. Swenson, President, NGS:lmw

The South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) calls for this year's World Water Day to be declared a day of mourning for the millions of people who are sick and dying as a result of not having access to water.

The United Nations chose "Water and Health" as the theme for World Water Day on Thursday 22nd March 2001. Nothing could be more ironic in South Africa and across the African continent. People here are becoming more and more unhealthy and dying prematurely because water is now a commodity that only the rich can afford.

Behind the inevitable glib and cheery public relations turning on of taps for the first time on Thursday, lies the shocking reality that worldwide, more than five million people, most of them children, die every year from illnesses caused from drinking poor quality water.

A shocking new survey has revealed that much of the blame for this must be laid at the feet of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Their water privatization and full cost recovery policies have been imposed as conditions for IMF loans in over 12 African countries. Negotiated under the IMF's new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), the conditions are leading to people being cut off from water more than ever before.

The Africa Policy and Information Centre has reported that water privatization is making water less accessible and less affordable. People are resorting to unsafe water sources. This is clearly evident in South Africa where the amount of cholera infections is close approaching 70 000!

In Ghana, the result of forcing the poor to pay "market rate tariffs" for water means that most Ghanains can no longer afford water at all. Only 36 percent of the rural population have access to safe water and 11 percent have adequate

sanitation within the existing system. Water is also scarce in the capital, Accra. In poor areas of Accra, families are paying almost half the daily wage for 10 buckets of water!

In Angola, there is an agreement that water prices should rise regularly so that the company delivering water can make a "reasonable" profit. In Benin, Tanzania, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Rwanda water privatization must be completed by the end of this year for governments to qualify for loans. In Sao Tome and Principe, there will be no further government subsidy of water in the run up to privatization.

This is clearly ridiculous. In some of the most poverty stricken countries in Africa, unemployed and homeless people who cannot even afford a crust of bread now and then, are expected to fork out one months food money for a few buckets of water! In the last month alone in Cape Town and Johannesburg, thousands of people have been disconnected from water they could not afford to pay for. Even permanently employed workers are being forced to choose between food, electricity or water. This terrible reality makes a mockery of human rights day.

Even in so-called first world countries like New Zealand, people are being forced to take to the streets against the commercialization of water. Water activists in Auckland will be protesting on World Water Day against the City Council. The demands of the activists are that all commercialization be stopped and water be restored to the public service after hundreds of families were disconnected from water they could no longer afford.