Haslam's Continuing Plan to Privatize Tennessee

Billionaire governor, Bill Haslam, has had his lawyers working overtime in the dark to develop a plan to Walmartize all state jobs in Tennessee.  A few days ago his team announced a wide-reaching Request for Information that allowed multinational service efficiency giant, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), to have the insider's track to land the contract.  Haslam's administration was cited in a state audit in 2013 for "conflict of interest" for insider dealings with JLL.

According to the Tennessean, the privatization scheme is focused on prisons, higher education, parks, hospitals, and the military:

There are 19 types of positions listed in the request, including everything from security and custodial work to financial accounting for business operations. An additional 10 "future potential components" that might be involved in any outsourcing include food services, project management and "master planning."

 And this from the Commercial Appeal:

News of the discussion was given to physical plant employees at UT Knoxville in an Employee Relations Council meeting last week, according to United Campus Workers, which represents campus facilities employees at some state colleges and universities.

The group said “the dizzying scope of the RFI threatens to affect public services and tens of thousands of jobs across every county in Tennessee.”

Tom Anderson, a purchaser in facilities at UT Knoxville, said in a statement released through United Campus Workers that the request for information’s scope “includes every person, and every job, for every building everywhere. Haslam wants to outsource our safety, health, and education to some for-profit, out-of-state company. All of the maintenance, all of the purchasing, all of the utilities, all of the human resources, all of the security, all of the cleaning, all of the administrative work in our schools, our courtrooms, our service agencies. It will hurt everyone.”