LOCAL 207 ORGANIZER

Two recent events make it crucial for city workers to join the NAACP-sponsored Civil Rights Rally this Saturday. Kilpatrick will be there. We should let him know City workers will not be treated like second-class citizens.

On Monday, June 23 in Washington D.C., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of affirmative action. The historic success shows that bold action and organizing can win when everyone says we should give up.

Later that day, here in Detroit, AFSCME negotiations essentially broke down after Mayor Kilpatrick’s rejected AFSCME’S pitiful 0-0-2 contract proposal. Council 25 tried to help management by getting the AFSCME Local Presidents to agree to a reduction of the 50¢ special adjustments, but they twice voted NO to that idea by a vote of 8-5. Even they could not accept such an offer. The members would not stand for it. This rebellion against Council 25 was possible because Local 207 and 2920 consistently refuse to cave-in. Negotiations have long since gone nowhere. Now we have no choice but to fight. We must come to the March to demand civil rights for city workers!

AFSCME Local 207 and Local 2920 have been part of the U of M cases, and the national movement which has been build around them. Every member who signed a petition, donated money, or attended a rally around these cases in the last two years should be pleased that you played a part in securing this victory. Here is a quote from BAMN’s response to the Supreme Court’s decision:

“This historic and momentous victory was made possible because a generation of proud and determined youth has committed itself to the realization of the promise of Brown v. Board of Education, the promise of integration and equality, within our lifetime. In the face of nay-sayers too numerous to count, BAMN has forged a new leadership of young people who organized what no one dared before: a world-class legal defense based on this nation’s deep striving for integration and equality, and a more than 50,000-person integrated march of mainly college and high school youth in the streets of Washington, DC on April 1, 2003.”

Come to the Civil Rights March and help BAMN and Local 207 celebrate this important victory. This triumph is not an end-point, it’s the launching pad for a revitalized fight for equality and integration throughout our society. This includes the fight of Detroit city workers.

We deserve a decent living, and secure jobs. Detroit’s youth deserve the jobs that our Mayor is giving to suburban contractors. We deserve a mayor who will defend the interests of Detroiters and maintain city services, not lay off city workers (and cut services), close the Heavy Repair Yard (and give the jobs to contractors), and try to close six recreation centers!

We deserve a mayor who will bargain a fair contract, not tell city workers at Cobo Hall that we don’t work for the city to “get rich.” But we do deserve a decent living for our families!

The recent rebellion in Benton Harbor is the result of the very conditions Detroiters are subjected to.

Just because his right-wing, racist Republican buddy State Attorney General Michael Cox did a cover-up for Kilpatrick doesn’t mean that Detroiters trust him. Kilpatrick is politically vulnerable, and he can’t handle a militant struggle for our contract. We must use every opportunity to confront him and demand a fair contract starting with Saturday’s March. He will be there, and we must make it clear to everyone attending that we will not leave him alone till he gives us a fair contract.

Martin Luther King gave his life while fighting for striking AFSCME sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. He would stand with Detroit city workers today. We should attend Saturday’s March and demand our civil rights. We must demand equal pay with the suburban contractors. Be there and revitalize the fight for equality and the fight for our contract. Let’s take our fight to Kilpatrick!