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Everyone, especially Water Department workers, should come to this public meeting and express outrage at the unethical, undemocratic and racist threat of a regional takeover and/or privatization of Detroit's water and sewerage systems. Those wishing to speak should be prepared to make a one or two minute statement.

If Local 207 members lead, Detroiters will join us to defend one of the most important and valuable assets Detroit still owns and manages. This is a fight for our jobs. And this is a civil rights struggle to stop the nation's largest black community from being stripped like an abandoned building. Together, the community and unions can save our water, and move on to make necessary improvement to the Department's aging equipment, and sweep away management's bureaucratic impediments to progress.

Federal Judge Sean Cox has given a panel till November 4, 2011 to show him a sustainable plan to keep the sewage plant from polluting the river. Cox instructed the panel to "disregard" Detroit's City Charter (our "constitution"), City ordinances (laws passed by City Council) and our union contracts when formulating their plan. The panel members are City Council members Charles Pugh and Gary Brown, City Chief Operating Officer Chris Brown (representing Mayor Bing), and a member of the Water Board of Commissioners . None of those people know much about waste water. This could mean that this panel is intended to provide cover for Cox to impose (in his words) "a more intrusive remedy." Oakland and Macomb County politicians are asking Cox to take the Department from Detroit. If they take over, massive privatization and job losses are certain, Detroit will be closer to being dismantled and depopulated, and one of the last vestiges of black political power in the U.S. will be severely diminished.

Local 207 is already in consultation with our legal team, but this battle can't be won in the court room alone. We must show the powers-that-be that they have plowed too deep, and have now struck a rock. We must convince Detroiters that victory is ours if we fight. And the workers of the Water & Sewerage Department must let Cox know that we will fight this battle by any means necessary, including a strike.

The time to fight for our jobs, our Department, our city, our dignity is now. The first battle is Wednesday.