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 Re-Energizing Labor Day as Privatization of Public assets almost never benefit Working Families- just big corporations leaving citizens badly cheated.  Here is why.


UD Track Team  - Dr. Nina and Dad 'Phil Anderson'

  As tomorrow, labor unions march down Rodney Square in Wilmington, DE, private corporation organized labor is at an all-time low 6.5%.  I cringe at the thoughts when only state-owned institution for rebuilding the manufacturing sector at the Port of Wilmington plans for privatization. Yes, the thought that all this Innovation and Technology is creating jobs currently finds little definitive evidence thereof.   Just take a walk Down Town in Wilmington, DE on Market street around 12:00 noon and see for yourself.

  Having parents who were proud members of organized Labor, I can attest that our quality of lives benefited from their membership. My mom was a member of the AFL-CIO in the custodian union for the Red Clay School District and a father in the ILA (International Longshoremen's Association), ILA at the Port of Wilmington.  Yes, I am the President/CEO, of TOVA Healthcare and the 2017 Delaware Woman-Owned Business of the Year and am saying this,   Yes, I can talk candidly about ensuring employees are payed competitive wages.  Even though as a 100% Black-Owned business, the state has starved me of resources and refused to pay TOVA for Sickle Cell services rendered.  My friends say, the  corporate 'Delaware Way' plutocrats who want to take over the program for the two major hospital systems plan to reap the profits or just simply pay for someone's retirement home.

   As TOVA struggles to save a small business and employees,  the DHSS plans to put a model Sickle Cell Specialty Care model up for bid and my business is struggling to survive and most politicians hands are tied.  Despite all of these brutal tactics, I, as the President/CEO, still are about my employees and even my contractors. Studies have shown over and over that Privatization 'Disproportionately Hurts Poor Individuals and Families.  
  
   The following are 7 ways private companies fleece the poor by making Working Families loose.  (Taken from the Nation.com and  Alternet.org)

1.  Privatization fleeces the poor is by making basic public services cost more. 

2.  Privatization schemes for water and electricity systems, which have hiked user fees for outsourced utilities, but suffered from a decline in the quality of services, and that spiking rates “particularly harm low-income residents and those on fixed-incomes.”

3.  Civil-service workforces are handed over to “contractors,” union contracts can get shredded along with the wage standards and benefits; critical staff are thinned out; and training programs and regulatory oversight unravel.

4.  Our private health care system is by far the most expensive system in the developed world.Forty-two percent of sick Americans skipped doctor's visits and/or medication purchases in 2011 because of excessive costs. The price of common surgeries is anywhere from three to ten times higher in the U.S. than in Great Britain, Canada, France, or Germany. Medicare is more cost-effective. According to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, Medicare administrative costs are about one-third that of private health insurance. More importantly, our ageing population has been staying healthy. While as a nation we have a shorter life expectancy than almost all other developed countries, Americans covered by Medicare INCREASED their life expectancy by 3.5 years from the 1960s to the turn of the century.

5.  Free -market health care has been taking care of the CEOs.  Ronald DePinho, president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, made $1,845,000 in 2012. That's over ten times as much as the $170,000 made by the federal Medicare Administrator in 2010. Stephen J. Hemsley, the CEO of United Health Group, made three hundred times as much, with most of his $48 million coming from stock gains.

6.  Food and Water Watch found that private companies charge up to 80 percent more for water and 100 percent more for sewer services. A more recent study confirms that privatization will generally "increase the long-term costs borne by the public." Privatization is "shortsighted, irresponsible and costly."

7.  Prison business is too good. With each prisoner generating up to $40,000 a year in revenue per body.

8.  Stanford University study found Charter schools were slightly better in reading and slightly worse in math, with little difference overall. Charter results have shown an improvement since 2009.



    In summary, US News stated, "Private industry is not going to step in and save people from drowning, or help them rebuild their homes without a solid profit." In order to stay afloat as a nation we need each other, not savvy business people who presume to tell us all how to be rich. We can't all be rich. We just want to keep from drowning. 
        Can I get a Amen, Happy Labor Day!!  Dad, thanks for schooling me. I hope someone is listening.  Dr. Nina

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