[P3 Alert] Summer 2003

[p3alert@lists.cupe.ca]

Water privateers: Three strikes and you?re out -- Strike one ? Halifax tears up water P3

Halifax city council has backed out of a major wastewater P3 with French water multinational Suez. The cancellation of what looked like a ?done deal? is a great victory for public water ? and a significant setback for Suez.

Strike two ? Consultant tells Moncton to keep water public

A key consultant?s report has some clear advice for Moncton city council: don?t privatize your water supply. The long-awaited report was commissioned last year, after overwhelming public pressure from CUPE and the community forced the city to shelve plans for a secret, untendered contract with Vivendi/Veolia subsidiary US Filter. Even the provincial government questioned the deal, calling the tendering process into question.

Strike three ? Winnipeg water plant to stay public

The city of Winnipeg is getting a new drinking water treatment plant that will be publicly owned and operated. CUPE helped ensure the new plant was public, playing a key role in the local Water Watch coalition as well as showing leadership through the municipal workers? local.

Ontario chokes on Cara foods deal

A newspaper investigation has revealed that contracted out foods giant Cara squeezed $2.3 million from the provincial government to get out of a 10-year contract. The story highlights the costs and conflicts on the menu when food services are contracted out. Cara is a big player on campuses and in cafeterias of health care facilities ? and they are one of the corporations behind the privatization scheme for food services in the Regina-Qu?Appelle Health Region.

Taiwan: contracting out helped spread SARS

The head of Taiwan?s disease control agency says contracted-out hospital cleaning and laundry helped spread SARS. HEU is pointing to the official?s damning conclusion as more evidence not to contract out BC health support services.

BC surgeries sell-off

The BC government is pushing a plan to privatize thousands of surgeries, in a dangerous move that could spread across the province ? and the country. The Campbell government is backing the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority move to contract out hundreds of procedures, from hysterectomies and mastectomies to pacemaker implants, joint surgeries and toe amputations.

P3 hospitals get push in Quebec, NB

The Québec government is pushing P3s for the province?s hospitals. On the heels of a recent P3 conference in Montreal, the Québec treasury board president has endorsed private sector operation of two new hospitals at the McGill University Health Centre and the Centre Hospitalier de l?Université de Montréal.  On the New Brunswick election trail, newly re-elected premier Bernard Lord repeated his suggestion that a new hospital in Woodstock be built through a P3.

NS P3 school owner plays dirty

The owner of several Nova Scotia P3 schools is trying to turn a bigger profit by overriding a CUPE collective agreement and assuming direct control of maintenance and custodial work.

Our contracts are our first line of defence

Check out the spring edition of Tabletalk, a CUPE resource on bargaining. The issue focuses on fighting privatization at the bargaining table, and includes examples of contract language CUPE members have won and arguments they?ve used to stop contracting out, P3s and other forms of privatization in their tracks.