By LILLIAN ROBERTS
Executive Director
District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

Since becoming executive director nine years ago, I have vigorously called attention to the fraud, abuse and waste associated with contracting out.

Our persistence has paid off.

I felt very proud of our work at the union on November 22 when we hosted a briefing on contracting out and jobs for the city's Congressional Delegation.

We focused on the threat that contracting out poses to the civil service system, the jobs of our members, the proper use of federal dollars, the local economy and the financial health and integrity of our local government.

The contracted-out CityTime project became big news about a year ago with the arrests of consultants for stealing $80 million. Even before the arrests, the troubled automated payroll system had tarnished the Bloomberg administration because of its history of overspending. After 12 years, the original budget mushroomed from $63 million to more than $700 million - and CityTime still isn't fully running.

The Congress members at our Congressional briefing were appalled when they heard details about CityTime and other corrupt and botched, mostly information-technology and education, contracts. We showed the connection between contracting out and job destruction. Under Bloomberg, the city's annual procurement budget has increased $3 billion to more than $10.5 billion. Meanwhile, our membership has dropped by 10,000 in recent years as crooked contractors and their employees have built up an unaccountable shadow government.

For me, the final outrage that led to my decision to call for a congressional briefing was the Department of Education's ruthless firing of 642 mostly low-wage school support workers in October. The DOE did this as it continues to pay billions of dollars to contract workers as far away as India and Turkey.

The 99 percent are stuck with crumbs

Seeing our members callously cast into the street to join the ranks of the unemployed made me reflect more generally about the state of working families in our country. Over four decades now, our political and economic system has rewarded the 1 percent while the 99 percent have been stuck with the crumbs. Thanks to the Occupy Wall Street movement, the American people are finally waking up and beginning to understand better how bad public policy and corporate practices have harmed us.

Because our conversation at the briefing went beyond contracting out, the participants - about 25 federal, state and local politicians, public-policy experts, and union leaders and top staffers - came up with broad recommendations.

The suggestions included establishing a contracts caucus in the U.S. Congress, watchdog legislation and tracking federal assistance more closely. The recommendations also included identifying recurring revenue streams, extending the state's millionaires' tax, raising the tax rate on the interest earnings of hedge fund managers, a state law to allow the recall of politicians, a federal jobs program and a second economic stimulus.

I'm optimistic that some of these ideas will come to fruition, and I plan to develop additional proposals that will help protect and improve the standard of living of our members and working families.

With the holiday season upon us, we should be grateful for what we have while offering help to the less fortunate. It's time for the 99 percent to stand together to fight for a society that works for everyone, not only a tiny power elite.