Workers fight firings, resist attacks on public housing

Public housing is under attack nationwide. In the line of fire are Public Housing Authority workers, some of whom want to fight back. Tenants suffer collateral damage through deteriorating living conditions. The attack is part of the overall assault on programs for the poor, an intensification of poverty for the benefit of the wealthy.

In June a PHA Directors Association conference called “Planning for Change” included a training on the mandatory program introduced under the George W. Bush administration called Asset Based Management. Borrowing the concept of “asset management” from the business world, ABM requires each public housing project to operate independently and at a profit. A suggested means to this end is privatization, using property management companies.

Also up for grabs is the mission of the PHAs. The presentation raised the question, “Who are we in the context of a 21st-century housing provider?” The answers included “public housing caretakers,” “local affordable housing developer” or “entrepreneurial PHA.” (MDStrum Housing Services Inc., June 7) Since the PHAs are bound by the Housing Act of 1937 to be public housing caretakers, becoming developers or entrepreneurs means they may be straying from their legal mandate.

In Ohio the Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority is rolling back the clock on job security for American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1355, which represents maintenance and clerical workers. CMHA finds fraudulent ways to fire workers “for cause,” which makes them ineligible for unemployment benefits. Management’s strategy is to terrorize the workers on for-cause charges based on provocations, frame-ups, distortions and outright lies.

CMHA has fired almost 80 workers in the past two years. The tenants are now being charged for each repair order they put in. The result is a serious deterioration in living conditions and less need for maintenance and clerical workers. These layoffs are dressed as terminations.

Dave Patterson, former president of the local, is the main organizer of union activists. During his tenure he won partial resolution of a significant wage gap through bold rallies and media exposure. He filed many grievances and handled many arbitrations on behalf of members whom the International union had not supported. Both CMHA and the regional officers of AFSCME found Patterson’s fighting spirit difficult to work with.

Patterson told Workers World in October, “The anti-union movement is based on divide and conquer. They create infighting and turmoil.” Divisive tactics swept Patterson out of office and put in Elkanard Smith.

Bosses target militant unionists

Kevin Mitchell was fired in 2007 for alleged cell phone use on the job. Successful arbitration brought him back in 2009. He was appointed steward and then decided to run for president against Smith. Speaking to WW earlier this year, he charged, “Elkanard is in cahoots with CMHA.”

Smith quickly withdrew Mitchell as steward, but his supporters submitted a petition to retain him.

CMHA wasn’t happy about the grievance Mitchell had won for unpaid overtime during his brief tenure as steward. They used the techniques of provocation and set-up to fire Mitchell for “cursing loudly,” “profane and obscene language” and “insubordination.”

The alleged profanity was Mitchell’s repeating aloud a death threat from Smith, which Smith later admitted. The alleged insubordination was when Mitchell did not comply with a supervisor’s command to “Sit!” fast enough to suit her. Mitchell’s pending unfair labor practices case takes up these issues, among others.

Mitchell informed WW that his unemployment benefits were denied based on a whole new lie. CMHA stated that they found him in a closet avoiding work, though no details of date or place were given. It is a testament to CMHA’s clout that Ohio Jobs and Family Services bought this flimsy line.

Salita Baker, chief steward of the clerical workers and a leading activist, has not been notified about several clerical terminations which could easily have been challenged. Instead, she told WW that Smith, who represented the workers, has failed to adequately defend them.

In addition, since 2007 CMHA maintenance workers have been told to change into uniforms with insignia identifying them as employees of Western Reserve Management. They are then transported off housing project properties to rehab foreclosed houses and apartments in the suburbs, which have been purchased by CMHA for Section 8 housing. Patterson considers this an illegal use of their labor under Housing Act terms and a pay scale violation under their union contract. But more importantly, CMHA has been a major player in tipping the balance in favor of foreclosures.

“It’s the biggest Ponzi scheme in America. The banks are at the top, hand in hand with the U.S. government. The PHAs are in the middle, buying up houses with taxpayer dollars. And the little people are at the bottom, being forced out of their homes,” Patterson told WW.

These few examples of CMHA treachery are part of a long-term strategy to break up public sector unions and to privatize public housing and place it in the grasping hands of greedy developers, while covertly placing large sums of public money in private bank coffers. At CMHA, activist workers are fighting back.