Anniston Star, October 31, 2002

Workers protest Army plan

By J.Wes Yoder
Star Staff Writer
10-31-2002

BYNUM

A modest crowd of Army laborers gathered underneath the Anniston Army Depot marquee
Wednesday morning, clapping and hollering for local politicians and union leaders who vowed to fight the privatization of military jobs.

With the Army's Third Wave initiative threatening to affect more than 200,000 military and civilian employees nationwide, protest leaders pledged to shout long and loud enough for the secretary of the Army to hear it inside the Pentagon walls.

Thomas White, secretary of the Army, released a memorandum to military agencies Oct. 4,
requiring each command to submit a list of exemptions to an otherwise wholesale privatization of the Army's "non-core" jobs.

The plan will allow private contractors to perform military tasks, possibly forcing up to 900 local depot employees to work without benefits and with a smaller income, if not replacing their positions altogether.

Everett Kelley, president of the local American Federation of Governmental Employees 1945, stood on a trailer hitched to a white pickup. He delivered a pulpit-style message from a podium. Taped to the podium was a handwritten sign that read: "Army for Sale."

His voice resounding through a single speaker, Kelley said, "We want to stop this before it's a done deal This initiative would be a disaster for the fine men and women who work here."

The Army has said outside companies could bid on Army jobs as early as spring 2003.

The rally, about 150 strong, is unlikely to stop a Pentagon initiative from rolling into existence. But politicians, headed by 3rd District congressional candidate Joe Turnham, said they would pressure the Army to reconsider.

"It's ironic, ladies and gentlemen, that Enron philosophy and the secretary of the Army is coming to Third Wave you out of a job," Turnham said, referring to White's days as an Enron executive. "It's time to put American people first, profit second."

Other candidates, all Democrats, included state Senate candidates Preston Gray, District 12, and Jim Preuitt, District 11; state House candidates Barbara Boyd, District 32, and Steve Hurst, District 35; and Calhoun County Commission candidates Robert Downing, District 2, and Eli Henderson, District 3.

While the candidates offered support for depot workers, there was little mention of a plan to
counterattack the Third Wave.

Still, a depot worker, who declined to give his name, said there was a measure of comfort in thepresence of the politicians.

"They (the candidates) wouldn't be in the position they're in without having done some things," the man said. "There's safety in numbers."

The man, a mechanical engineer at the depot for 22 years, said he was taking time off from work to attend the event for the sake of younger depot workers. His 24-year-old stepson is a depot mechanic, and his 17-year-old son is hoping to work at the depot when he graduates from high school.

"Anytime you voice your opinion, it helps," the man said. "You can't just keep quiet."