I was talking to the Ukrainians about you.

["Don Ward" <donrward@hotmail.com>]

Tim Mitchell,
I met some Ukranain city officials the other evening. They were in 
Louisville, Ky. to learn how American cities manage public service 
departments. The subject of privitizing those services came up. I told them 
about you and your work in Australia. It seemed like I was talking to 
another planet.  They had difficulty in grasping why a government would not 
want to provide those services and provide many at no cost. WE also talked 
about Employee Ownership. I totally lost them on that.

Also, I somehow got into your discussions about looking for labor union 
mqanagement models for the work you are doing in New South Wales. Actually, 
I would think that if an United States model would work, Dan Bell could help 
you a lot.

I moved from Northeast Ohio, Dan's organization is based there, in 1971. It 
was cold, businesses were failing  or moving out and everything was rusting. 
A popular folk singer of the time even wrote a song about the river that 
flows through Cleveland, the largest city in that part of the world. The 
river(it had the native american name Cuyahoga) was always catching on fire. 
The song went something like "burn on big river, burn on."  I got a job in 
Louisville Ky and grabbed it.

About five years ago I began to meet with clients of Dan and his 
organization up in the same country I escaped from so long ago. My purpose 
was to more involve our employees ( we were a
non union ESOP company) more in their safety. There for the first time, I 
met union officials who were stockholders in ESOP companies. Many of them 
talked more like management than the management reps, the ones with the 
white shirts and ties. Again, Dan would know more of how that paradigm shift 
took place. If there are comparable conditions,probably saving jobs, Dan 
would know.

I have two questions;

You talked of democratic capitalism? How do you see them blending together?

Why would the average union official want the headache of ownership? I n 
northeast Ohio it is ownership or no company, no jobs and therefore no need 
for a union. Dan would know that. In the United States aboout 1935, 
President Roosevelt got a law passed to give unions the right to organize 
workers and bargain collectively for them. The law specifically excludes 
management. As ESOPS gain more power and employees assume management 
funcions will there come a time when they can no longer have the prot3ection 
of thart law. WE call it the  "Wagner Act". This may not be true in your 
country.

Hope you get this and you will be the first to when the Ukranians do begin 
to privatize governmental functions.

Good Luck

Don Ward






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