We Need a City-Wide Strike to Save Our City!
PREPARE TO VOTE NO TO CONCESSIONS
No Emergency Manager Dictator!
The attack against Detroit is being amped up. We are being threatened with a consent decree, an Emergency Manager and bankruptcy – anything to get us accept more wage, benefit and work rule concessions, more job cuts and further reduction in city services. The corporate-funded foundations that are trying to run our city now openly say that they intend to “watch Detroit implode, then pick up the pieces.” It’s time to fight!
Defeat Bing's & City Council's Attack
Bing & City Council are demanding 10% pay cuts plus huge cuts in healthcare and pensions, and threatening 1,000 to 2,600 layoffs. Last week Michigan AFSCME Council 25 President Albert Garrett said he’d be willing to negotiate more concessions in hopes of avoiding the governor appointing an Emergency Manager with the power to cancel union contracts. Garrett wants concessions limited to wages, health insurance and pensions, without opening up the rest of the contract. He said any concessions would be subject to ratification by AFSCME’s membership.
The Michigan State Treasurer has started an initial review of Detroit’s finances. This could take up to 30 days. An additional in-depth review would be necessary to move to the appointment of an Emergency Manager. Petitions are being circulated to have the EM law nullified until state voters weigh in on it in November 2012. Unfortunately even after enough signatures are collected, they can take as long as 60 days to certify, with many possible legal roadblocks ahead. Worse yet, the Republican state legislature may just change a word or two and pass the law again.
Fight Judge Cox's Attack on AFSCME Local 207
Management has been utilizing Federal Judge Cox’s outrageous anti-worker order to attack our unions, especially Local 207. Though they have said that layoffs and bumping will not affect DWSD workers at this time, and they’ve eliminated furloughs, they have also rescinded full-time union release status for President John Riehl, and Grievance Investigators Lekita Thomas and Michael Mulholland. The only exceptions are for grievance hearings and contract negotiations, with no time during working hours to investigate or process hundreds of grievances. The Union Office hours will now be irregular. This will severely impact the day-to-day functioning of our union, invite more management abuse toward union members and make it harder to organize for our rights. Both AFSCME Council 25 and Local 207 (along with SAAA and APTE, accountants and professional associations) have filed motions against Cox’s order. Cox dismissed Council 25’s motion without so much as a hearing. Cox hasn’t ruled yet on Local 207’s motion which called for the order to be rescinded and for Cox to remove himself from further actions regarding DWSD. It is likely both motions will soon be appealed to 6th Circuit Appeals Court in Cincinnati. But make no mistake, Judge Cox must be defeated by the members organized to take whatever means are necessary to defend our rights and win justice.
Key to this fight will be maintaining unity with other city workers. Cox has said that DWSD must negotiate its own labor contracts, which would make united actions by City and DWSD more difficult in the future, and make it easier to use divide and conquer tactics to crush us both. But for now we are all part of the same Master Agreement, and may be subject to whatever concessions are negotiated for other AFSCME members.
In addition to being president of Local 207, John Riehl is an elected Pension Trustee, representing union and non-union city employees and retirees. Riehl has been told that he will no longer be given paid release time to perform his duties on the Pension Board. This is illegal, is being challenged by the Pension Board and Local 207. This shows again that Judge Cox could give a damn about pollution – his target is workers and our unions.
Vote NO to More Concessions!
Our recent history shows that each round of cutbacks that go down without a fight leads to more cutbacks. Bing, City Council, Snyder, and the banks and corporations that control them don’t believe that we are capable of fighting. They don’t believe that we can build a civil rights movement powerful enough to win the federal funds that we deserve to provide jobs to rebuild Detroit, to win equal treatment and a decent standard of living. But we can and we must. Pessimism is our enemy. Those who argue that this is not the time to fight should tell us when times will get better and the fight any easier. Those who say that we must cave in to these unfair cuts to avoid the breaking of our union contracts must tell us what will stop Bing from coming back for more tomorrow, as they’re doing now only a year after the last concessions were imposed on us. We must not be suckered into accepting concessions as the “lesser of two evils.” IF ASKED TO RATIFY CONCESSIONS, VOTE NO! We must organize a strike, and strike to win. To win we must expand our fight beyond our contract to include the fight over school and library closings, and service cuts to the poor and our neighborhoods.
At a press conference held last Thursday December 1st, representatives from AFSCME and other city unions stood with UAW President Bob King, Mayor Bing, City Council and some clergy declaring they were ready to negotiate more concessions to save Detroit from an EM. Since Detroit is reportedly in such dire financial straits, this is no guarantee against an EM or bankruptcy. We can only defend Detroit by fighting like Dr. Martin Luther King fought against racism, poverty and second-class treatment. His method should be our method. Dr. King was often told that “now is not the time to fight for equality” by both black and white so-called advisors. He answered them by insisting on the “fierce urgency of now.” He stuck with the movement and fought on. He won. He changed history.
No More Layoffs & Unemployment! No More Service Cuts to Detroiters!
According to the Free Press, the number of city employees paid from the General Fund has been cut from 12,000 in 2005 to only 7,300 today! And half of those are cops and firefighters. Despite this, Detroit is being threatened with between 1,000 and 2,600 layoffs. Any layoffs will mean much deeper cuts in Detroit’s already woeful city services. City workers are often the only people on the block with a decent job, one that generates tax revenues, and provides a future for our children and grandchildren. None of Detroit’s problems can be solved without more jobs. Any politician proposing jobs cut should resign in shame.
The Struggle to Save Our Beloved City
The problems that plague our city are not natural, they are not an accident, they are not inevitable, and they are not our fault. Detroit is subjected to systematic segregation, inequality and poverty by a political system dedicated to increasing profits for the few at the expense of the many. These social policies are not part of a natural order, they are policies enacted and kept in place by a small class of elites who profit from their misdeeds. For many of us, the events of the last few years have torn away the veil from our eyes and revealed the workings of our society more clearly. The Occupy Movement is just the beginning. It is obvious now that the “business model” which is presented as the cure to all societal problems does not work for most of us. Majority black, Latina/o and/or poor communities are told that we have to be “self-sufficient” and pull ourselves up by our boot straps, even if we have no boots. Anything that is publically-owned and or publically-controlled is subject to privatization – if someone can make a profit from it – if not, it is considered a relic to be scrapped. There is no profit in helping people out of poverty, in treating black people and immigrants with respect. But this “profit or perish” model does not have to define our fates. Right now, Wall Street, the banks and the corporations treat us like so many cattle because they believe that we will never effectively fight back. Yet we are much more powerful than most of us believe. Collectively we have more power than the “rich and powerful” people who are running our society over the cliff.
When we call rallies and pickets, it is to provide people the chance to feel our collective potential to unite and fight. We need to lead a series of escalating actions to give us a sense of our collective strength, build joint actions with our community and fight together for jobs, decent living standards, and the respect that we deserve. We need to use these actions to build an ongoing movement for justice and equality which is not merely another campaign rally where politicians to feed us their tired no-fight bullshit.
Demand Respect!
We must defend our jobs (which could soon be eliminated or privatized). We need to defend our wages, benefits and working conditions. Many of those who will lead the next fight were not even born yet in 1986 when Detroit city workers last struck. While younger workers see the world with fresh eyes and will be fighting for their future, not their retirement. All Detroiters need to defend our city from Bing’s plan to cut off services to large swaths of Detroit. We need to expand and deepen the fight to create a general rebellion against the conditions that are being imposed on our city, and the majority of the nation. If you agree with this flier then help us recruit others who want to fight. With a core of new leaders we can fight and win. Call 313-965-1601, 995-5691 or 919-5011.