Re: initiate discussion

["Tim Mitchell" <pentim@netspace.net.au>]

Dear Dan

Thank you for your email. Greetings to everyone in the EOPRIV discussion
group.

By way of introduction, I am working in an Australian law firm based in
Sydney, New South Wales (NSW) and have a number of years focussed on
infrastructure issues. I am also an active member of the Australian Labor
Party (ALP) which holds government until 2003 in NSW by a strong majority.

I am actively pushing the policy agenda on employee ownership through the
ALP and have written a number of articles on the subject published in this
country. The ALP Government in NSW wants to privatise electricity and rail
assets but to date has been restricted by its State Conference which is
comprised by 60% union delegates. These Government assets are now competing
in an aggressive competitive environment (there is a national electricity
grid and open competition in the freight rail sector on NSW tracks).

Full retail electricity contestability begins in NSW on 1/1/01. Needless to
say, the Government is urgently needing to privatise some of these assets to
free itself of the inherent risks in a competitive environment. I am hoping
that ideas of a Labor style privatisation may bubble to the surface. This
would involve substantial leveraged ESOPs and formal worker/owner democratic
processes with union involvement.

The conditions are right to achieve such a model. Ultimately, I hope it
could be a helpful model for EO advocates in other contexts. I have
discussed EO models with the key union officials in the rail and electricity
sector and found them to be very open to the ideas.

I am looking forward to engaging in this discussion group and exchanging
ideas as we go along.

Kind regards

Tim Mitchell

PS: Dan, I have read the Worker Ownership Institute's (at Kent State
University) book "Participatory Employee Ownership - How it Works" and found
it to be extremely helpful in the context of NSW.





-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Bell <dbell@kent.edu>
To: eopriv@cog.kent.edu <eopriv@cog.kent.edu>
Date: Wednesday, 25,August, 1999 06:40
Subject: initiate discussion


>Hello,
>
>You are currently subscribed as part of the EOPRIV listserv of the
>Capital Ownership Group.
>
>Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dan Bell, and I am the
>moderator for this discussion group. I work as the International
>Program Coordinator for the Ohio Employee Ownership Center of
>Kent State University. On issues of privatization, I have been
>to Russia, Hungary, Belarus, Egypt and Chile.
>
>I have listed the others who have already subscribed to this
>discussion group below. If you choose, it would be nice for you to
>send a paragraph or two to the group introducing yourself.
>
>If you know of others who might be interested in being a part of
>this discussion, please send them a personal invitation.
>
>To send messages to the entire EOpriv list, send to
>eopriv@cog.kent.edu
>
>If you receive a message from this list and reply, your reply
>will go to everyone on the list. If you only want to reply to
>the individual, please write their address on the "To:" line.
>
>Current subscribers:
>
>David Binns, Foundation for Enterprise Development, DC, USA
>dbinns@fed.org
>
>Rafaella Chuahy, Foundation for Enterprise Development, DC, USA
>rchuahy@fed.org
>
>Bozo Lednik, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Velenje, Slovenia
>bozo.lednik@gzs.si
>
>Tim Mitchell
>pentim@netspace.net.au
>
>Don Ward, Human Resourse Answers (HRA) Associates, Kentucky, USA
>donrward@hotmail.com
>
>Thomas Brandt, Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism,
>Hawaii USA
>tbrandt@dbedt.hawaii.gov
>
>Joe Doggett, Political Science KSU, Ohio USA
>jdoggett@kent.edu
>
>I will be sending a message to the 270 people on the COGall
>list today as well to let others know that we are getting started.
>
>
>
>Dan Bell
>International Program Coordinator
>Ohio Employee Ownership Center
>Kent State University
>Kent, OH 44242
>(330) 672-3028
>(330) 672-4063 fax
>dbell@kent.edu
>http://www.kent.edu/oeoc/
>