5/25SF Picket To Protest Presido Privatization/Union Busting

Defend the Fired Presidio Workers!
Stop Unionbusting By Presido Bosses & Pelosi
Stop the Privatization of the Presidio!

For Immediate Release

Contact: Mike Crahan or Norm Infusino
(415) 561-2270

On Saturday, May 25, employees, union officials, community members and labor leaders will protest the mistreatment of workers at the Presidio.

The recent layoff of 62 Presidio Trust employees was the most recent event in a long series of Trust abuse against its workers. The Presidio Trust -- which has been criticized by diverse community groups for its lack of financial accountability, abusive management practices, and its secrecy over the commercial development of the Park -- will be the focus of the demonstration.

The National Parks and Public Employees, LIUNA Local #1141, will host the picket, which will take place outside of the Lombard gate of the Presidio (at Lombard and Lyon).

Several community groups and labor groups are expected to attend to show support for workers' rights at the Presidio and to demand more accountable and responsive behavior from the Presidio Trust.

Demonstrators will protest the loss of federal service rights at the Presidio and the ongoing privatization of the national park.

Laid-off former employees of the Trust as well as labor leaders and community activists will speak to the issues at the Presidio. Secretary-Treasurer of the San Francisco Labor Council Walter Johsnon will introduce the speakers and comment upon the pressing labor issues at the Presidio.

The rally will take place at 10 a.m., and demonstrators will meet at the Lombard gate of the Presidio at Lombard and Lyon. Speeches will be at 12 noon, and the rally is scheduled to continue until 1:30 p.m.

Please contact the union office if you have any questions at (415) 561-2270.

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2) BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON LAYOFFS AT PRESIDIO

National Parks & Public Employees Local 1141 LIUNA
San Franciso

Contact: Mike Crahan
(415) 561-2270

27 March 2002

Proposed budget cuts and layoffs by the Presidio Trust amount to a betrayal of Federal Workers. Due to a $12 million budget cut, the Presidio Trust now plans to lay off approximately 20% of its workforce. The nuts-and-bolts employees likely to lose their jobs include workers from every department, including landscaping and maintenance.

Although the Trust has offered across-the-board severance "buy-out" packages to all of its employees, Trust Management refuses to disclose which positions will be affected by layoffs, stating only that 20% will be terminated by May 1, 2002. As a result, some employees (approximately 20) of the Trust have been intimidated into accepting the bare-bones severance packages. Employees expect notices of termination as early as next week.

Presidio Trust employees have lost their rights as federal employees because of Trust mismanagement. Because the Trust has refused to negotiate a contract with the legally established National Parks and Public Employees Union Local #1141, the employees of the Trust are denied the protection that they were previously granted as federal employees.

Presidio Trust Employees facing layoffs include former employees at other federal facilities, including Mare Island, Naval Supply, and the Park Service. As one Presidio Trust employee stated, "under Office of Personnel Management regulations, I could have retired instead of being laid off, but the Trust is saying they don't have to go by Federal Regulations."

Trust employees, many who have been working at the Presidio for decades with Federal Civil Service rights, are now facing possible termination without retirement benefits. Presidio Trust employees are denied access to the rights of most Civil Service employees, including due process and collective bargaining rights, which guarantee that victims of lay offs are offered decent salaried severance pay and preference for other government jobs.

The Presidio Trust refuses to negotiate with the union about job security issues including layoff and recall rights, so employees are now denied the standard severance and retirement benefits based on established seniority systems that are afforded to most federal employees. Trust management can and will terminate any employee at any time with no consideration given to years of service, job performance, or the standard veteran's preference given in Civil Service employment.

Current lay offs demonstrate obvious past and current mismanagement of Park funds despite millions of dollars in revenue from residential and commercial leases. Apparently, Trust management continues to think that the lay off of the lowest paid workers in the park will solve the Trust's financial problems. Given the Trust's rampant overspending and misuse of funds reported in several Bay Area publications, working class employees of the Trust must now pay a steep price for the wasteful and unchecked misspending of Presidio Trust Management.

Perhaps more employees would be able to keep their jobs had previous Presidio director James Meadows not been granted such a generous severance agreement (amounting to $280,000, as reported by Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle, March 25, 2002) for his nepotistic and abusive management practices.

Although Presidio Trust Board Member Mary Murphy told the Chronicle that "we want to be a good employer, but we also have an obligation to run ourselves in a way that's efficient," the public has to question the Board's commitment to efficiency during Meadows's practical dictatorship and their current solution to their own gross overspending-laying off the working class civil servants at the Presidio.