Professional Workers Form Coalition to Protect Public Interest

A coalition of 19 organizations representing professional employees today announced the creation of Professionals for the Public Interest: Associations and Unions Defending Professional Integrity (PftPI) to defend the ability of professionals to do their jobs right, despite outside pressures from bosses, politicians and others.

According to the AFL-CIO Department for Public Employees (DPE), polling over many years has shown that for professionals, the ability to do the job right is a priority as important as, or more important than, compensation and benefits. Professionals choose what they want to do, invest in extensive education and training and value the latitude to meet professional standards.

Yet professionals face extensive financial and political pressures that endanger their ability to turn out quality work and, as a result, endanger the public they serve, DPE says. For example, scientists found that the Bush administration regularly twisted the results of their research to fit a political agenda. Nurses are engaged in ongoing struggles to provide better service by safe staffing, and teachers seek to reduce class sizes.

DPE President Paul Almeida told a Washington, D.C., press conference today:

represents an unprecedented and potentially historic alignment of professional associations and unions. Its goal is nothing less than allowing professionals to do their work on the basis of expertise, experience and high standards, with transparency and trust. Achieving that goal could mean a better quality of life for all of us.

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http://blog.aflcio.org/2009/05/20/professional-workers-form-coalition-to-protect-public-interest/