Shmoozing

A new right wing blog; the Shmoo Report got my attention.

Remember the Shmoo? No. It was an old Al Capp character.

No not Andy Capp the lazy Brit everyman, though the Shmoo Report would identify him as a union guy.

Al Capp the cartoonist. The right wing cartoonist from the sixties, who did the comic strip about the hillbillies. No, not the Beverly Hillbillies. Lil'Abner and Dogpatch.

Anyways Shmoo's were the ultimate socialist ideal, everyone could have anything they wanted because the Shmoo's would create it out of themselves. And they reproduced faster than rabbits.

Ironically, the lovable and selfless Shmoos ultimately brought misery to humankind because people with a limitless supply of self-sacrificing Shmoos stopped working and society began to break down.Seen at first as a boon to humankind, they were ultimately hunted down and exterminated by the U.S. government to preserve the status quo.

The Trouble with Tribbles on Star Trek, the loveable tribbles are modeled on Shmoo's. As is the edibled beast that wants to be eaten in Douglas Adams the Restaurant At the End of the Universe.

Sheesh this was just going to be a posting on Shmoo the schmuck and now I have to go into the history of comics. Schmuck of course is Yiddish, and a comical phrase for a well, schmuck.

Well ok here goes, the Shmoo Report says this, the proverbial Big Lie of the right that we all agree;

when it comes to being efficient and effective the private sector will always beat the public sector simply based on cost and time

Schmuck! The facts sir prove the opposite as I have documented here time after time. So no we don't all agree.

An actual study done by custodial workers in Edmonton public schools proves it. The study compared unionised in-house custodial workers with outside contractors. Same types of schools, the non-unionized outside contractors had to have their own equipment, supplies and staff. Which in itself is unusual because when the State privatizes as it has in Alberta with say its highways department or liquour stores it sells the equipment, supplies to the contractor.

This was a genuine level playing field, unlike most privatization attempts. It took two years and the result was that a joint union management committee, with two outside assessors found that the unionized workers were cheaper and more cost effective. Why the keyword used in the study was "ownership".

Contracted out workers while cheaper, that is paid less by their employer who profits by pocketing the difference in the contract and their pay, have no sense of loyalty to the company or to the place they are working in.

Public sector workers have a sense of ownership, the school, hospital, office building where they work as custodians is theirs. Hence the term custodians, NOT janitors. Janitors come in clean up and leave. A custodian maintains the building, for the safety of the people who work there.

Ironic that this is the very stakeholder ideology of the right. Maggie Thatcher used it when she wanted to sell public housing to those who rented it. If they owned it they would take care of it better Maggie and her right wing pals like to say. The whole stakeholder ideology is about 'ownership', well it turns out that it also applies to the public sector and public services. The public sector workers because of their employment conditions feel that they have ownership. Especially caregivers which includes custodians, foodservice workers and laundry workers in hospitals and schools. Even the support staff, school secretaries, teachers aids, nursing aides, etc. feel and know they are important for learning or maintaining a patients health. It takes Teamwork remember. And day by day contract workers will never have that feeling of ownership or stakeholding.


Today other studies show this to be the most important factor in retaining staff, having a sense of ownership. Ironic that as the right wing pushed for contracting out, management reform types were pushing the idea of teamwork and ownership at work.

So Shmoo the schmuck, believes that the private sector is better in delivering services than the public. His article, you knew I would get around to this eventually, is about health care. And he whines about how all the focus is on nurses and janitors and food workers, that are unionized. Tch Tch which of course he wants contracted out.

Well that has happened with laundry workers, and guess what again the myth that the private sector is cheaper and better falls apart again. Alberta and now B.C. has contracted out its laundery services. And no they haven't gotten cheaper. In fact in Alberta K-Bro who does all the laundry services now, could only operate by getting the hospital laundries sold to it at firesale prices. Now that it has a monopoly on laundry services it can charge what it likes, and it does. Laundry costs have increased. Workers wages of course have increased only minimally.

And again the use of contracted out services especially in custodial has been driven by cost considerations, that is the underfunding of the public sector. Hand in hand with the push to contract out has been the deliberate cost cutting to the public sector, be it schools or hospitals. Otherwise contracting out would not have been considered an option.Facing deficits school boards, hospitals, municipalities have been pushed to consider contracting out. So its not a solution at all, its an imposed economic condition that arises from cutbacks.
Which came first? Custbacks in public services of course, and which comes second contracting out as the saviour. Its got noting to do with being more economical or efficient. Its about saving money and the only way that savings is made is that contractors pay less to their workers. Thus with higher turnover in staff quality assurance cannot be made.

And cutting custodial staff in hospitals has led to dangerous conditions. Despite the Shmoo's view that Doctors are what keep hospitals running, and are obviously more important than 'janitors', lets remember the SARS crisis, which killed Doctors, Nurses and Patients. It and other viral diseases occuring in hospitals are doing so because custodial staff have been cut back and then contracted out.

Minimal cleaning safety standards are not being met. When that occurs in hospitals evidence shows the spread of opportunistic diseases such as SARS, the Norwalk virus and the Super Bugs increases. All have to do with the importance of cleaning for health. Which cannot be done under-budget, with cutbacks or through contracting out.








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