Strange development in Chicago

In an odd twist in the Chicago Public Library situation, AFSCME Council 31 executive director Henry Bayer has suggested that Mayor Rahm Emanuel ask for corporate funding to keep library hours at their previous level.  While Bayer also lambasted the city's suggestion that library workers forfeit a pay increase, his proposal to enlist corporate funding for public services would, if acted upon, only serve to endanger public workers and the services that they provide in the long run.  In my opinion, this is a slippery slope to privatization, corporate under-cutting of public services, and the gradual increase of influence of public affairs by the private sector.