"This article looks at US experiences of the contracting-out form of privatisations, the problems it can cause and the forms of resistance that have developed among public service unions. It focuses in particular on how the municipal workers' union in Indianapolis combined resistance with partnership to avert privatisation and achieve improved service, employment guarantees and better pay and working conditions. It then details, with reference to airport security, some of the perils of allowing privately owned companies, with their limited business preoccupations, to manage an area with a major public-good component. "

Support: Paper