Contract Negotiations Resume April 22 - The Fight is On!

Mayor Says No Raises For At Least Two Years!

           

 

            Mayor Kilpatrick gave his budget address to City Council on Friday, April 12. He obviously plans to balance the budget on the backs of City workers. He said there would be no raises until at least July 2003. The mayor's honeymoon is over, it's time to fight!

 

            The mayor is asking City workers to wait at the far end of the money line, while the contractors, casinos and corporations fill their fat pockets. We can not passively accept this insult. We will not let inflation and spiraling hospitalization deductions reduce our meager wages while the contractors continue privatizing our jobs and public services piece by piece.

 

            Very soon Local 207 officers will be calling on all City workers to restart the public battle for decent contracts by rallying and picketing downtown. Due to our Local's support for the public school employees and school activists, we can expect many of them to come out and support us. But the next step against privatization of public services is before us this week. On Wednesday April 17, the anti-democratic, appointed school is holding its next meeting at McNair Middle School 4180 Marlborough, 2 blocks north of Mack, east of Chalmers. Join the mass protest to throw out Burnley and the board.

           

            City workers taking action with Detroit Public School workers will help win better wages and job security. Mass united militant action will guarantee that our public services remain in the hands of the elected government of Detroit, rather than taken over by profit-motivated corporations. The outcome of this fight will do much to will determine if any real political power is left in the hands of Detroit, and other majority black communities.

 

            It is time for City workers to unite with our natural allies! Isolation within our individual unions will spell defeat for us all. The fight for better wages and against privatization is not confined to City workers. We have powerful allies who are facing the same attacks -- the community and the Detroit Public School workers.

 

The fight over political control of public services and public jobs is being played out in our schools today. Engler and Archer disenfranchised Detroiters and appointed a corporate-dominated school board with bust the school unions, privatize the school and further degrade of our children's education. Mayor Kilpatrick appoints the board, and they appointed the arrogant union-buster Dr. Kenneth Burnley as CEO. We must insist that the mayor hold school board elections now, and use his power to appoint whoever the community elects.

 

If City workers are active in this fight Kilpatrick will know that we are willing and able to unite with the community and other public workers to win. A victory against the privatizing school board will do more to affect our contract talks than more endless contract discussions.

 

 

School Lessons

United Mass Militant Action Is the Way to Win!

 

                        At the February 20th school board meeting thousands protested the layoffs of school employees and cutbacks of our kid's education and futures. Outside thousands picketed including about 60 members of Local 207, as well as officials from AFSCME Council 25, the Detroit Federation of Teachers and other unions, students and parents.

 

            The board meeting was shutdown by thousands of protesters who refused to let the board carry out their cutbacks while denying the community the right to elect our own board. The board and CEO Kenneth Burnley can not claim that protesters are violating the "democratic process", when the board's very existence is a blatant violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act! Shutting down the meetings with mass protest is the only way to win back the right to elect our own school board.

           

 

            At the following board meeting, March 28th, the union officials pulled back, fearing the militancy which was about to assure victory against the cutbacks. Still, hundreds picketed the meeting. Inside the meeting protesters once again chanted, "Whose schools? Our schools!" for about two minutes before specially picked DPS police jumped on the youth (including three 9th graders from McKenzie), as well as particular parents and teachers, brutalizing and arresting them.

 

            A reporter from the newspaper The Michigan Citizen was pushed around, and later a school bus driver was slugged and AFSCME Local 345 President Percy Jackson was threatened by DPS security. All the while the board members sat on the stage laughing, drinking pop and pointing out who they wanted arrested! Seventeen were arrested, including AFSCME Local 207 Secretary-Treasurer Michael Mulholland.

 

            The protesters have pleaded "not guilty" to disorderly conduct. A jury trial will be held, probably later this year. The arrestees are suing the board.

           

            Meanwhile the lawsuit filed three year ago against the takeover of Detroit's schools is going to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati on May 3. What happens between now and then will greatly influence the judges' decision. Privatization of our public services and jobs can be stopped. We can throw out Engler's corporate school board. We can reestablish the voting rights of Detroit citizens. We can spread and win the fight for truly equal quality education for our children, real integration and a more democratic society.

 

            Come to the school board meeting, and let them know that City workers will stand with the school workers and community to demand a real future for Detroit! Action now in this fight will be crucial to winning good contracts for City workers!