Water Department workers face layoffs

According to Victor Mercado, director of the Detroit Water & Sewerage Depart ment (DWSD), an impending layoff of workers throughout the department is needed. Why? To make Wall Street bankers happy.

In a meeting with union officials on March 16, Mercado explained that the department’s creditors, holding billions in bonds issued by the department, require there be a sizable reserve fund to make sure their interest payments never are threatened. As the reserve fund has shrunk below targeted levels, Mercado feels compelled to restore money for the bankers by laying off workers. DWSD paid out over $300 million in interest last year alone.

Letters to many of the unions representing workers at DWSD went out March 13 listing job titles that may face layoffs. No numbers have been published, but speculation is that five percent of the workforce may be given pink slips. Management meet ings have been told that all capital improvement projects are being reviewed, which could especially affect city engineers.

Workers, from those who operate the water purification plants to those who clean up hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater each day, are nervously waiting to see if the ax falls on them. Many of the jobs are already understaffed, with workers putting in 12-hour shifts. Many vacant positions have been eliminated from the budget over the past two years. And some unions, like UAW Local 2334, representing chemists and technicians, have had their numbers reduced almost 20 percent by attrition from levels just a few years ago.

For years the unions have been protesting the awarding of huge contracts to private firms by the department. Often private contractors who come in have to be trained by city workers on how to do the work. Waste and mismanagement also plague the department.

Mercado himself was hired at a salary of almost $250,000 a year for a job that used to pay $90,000. One of his first actions as director was to bring in Infra structure Management Group as consultants, at a cost of tens of millions of dollars a year. IMG specializes in privatizing public utilities.

DWSD is a non-profit, public entity. All its funds are generated from water and sewerage rates, which have steadily risen over the years. Along with higher rates have come tens of thousands of water shutoffs to customers unable to pay the big bills. Attempts by the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization to get the city and the DWSD to adopt a Water Affordability Plan have been “under study” for many months. In mid-March the Detroit City Council raised water rates another six percent without tak ing any action on a plan to help the poorest customers keep their water service.

Water department unions have announced plans to picket the Water Board Building on Tuesday, March 21, at 4:30 p.m. to protest the layoffs.