Michigan AFSCME Rally Wednesday Puts Spotlight on Worker Rights
March 15, 2011
P>The fight to protect collective bargaining rights takes center stage in Michigan on Wednesday, where thousands of union activists – members of AFSCME Council 25 – are planning to fill the statehouse Rotunda in Lansing starting at noon.
The goal: Defeat the anti-middle-class agenda of Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and the GOP-controlled Legislature.
The rally will specifically target a “financial emergency” bill passed last week in the Senate. The measure would give state-appointed “emergency managers,” who supervise financially troubled cities and other government entities, the power to terminate collective bargaining agreements of public service workers. In effect, it would give them the right to do what Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) already did to Wisconsin’s public employees despite the protests of tens of thousands of public service workers and others – and despite overwhelming national public opinion.
In addition, the Michigan Legislature is also considering a right-to-work measure that would undermine union solidarity. Such laws, in effect in 22 states, allow workers who benefit from a union contract to become “free riders” by not having to pay union dues.
Another anti-worker measure would prohibit collective bargaining terms in government contracts and contracts supported through government grants, tax subsidies and abatements. Meanwhile, Snyder would cut business taxes by 86 percent!
Snyder’s budget plan, which would devastate schools, universities and local governments, also was the target of demonstrations throughout the state on Monday. At a rally in Ann Arbor, AFSCME member Nancy Heine addressed the crowd: “We have cut our own pay, we have cut our benefits, we have increased contributions to health care.” Heine is a county employee at Washtenaw County Community Support and Treatment Services and president of Local 3052 (Council 25).
“And now, because the legislators are feeling the heat, public employees are being used as scapegoats and blamed for the state’s financial mess,” she said.
Read more about the rally here.
