LOCAL 207 ORGANIZER

On Monday, July 1, the AFSCME negotiations team made another tentative agreement on our contract. It’s only slightly different than the 5-year 0-0-2-2-2 offer we rejected in March by a 62% margin. Vote NO again!

The contract offers no raises from July 2001 to July 2003, with no retro. This two-year wage freeze is an affront to city workers’ intelligence and pride. Kilpatrick owes us for those years, despite some union officials’ desire to write off his debt.

It offers 2% raises for July 2003 and July 2004. Healthcare deductions, natural gas and insurance alone will eat that up.

The offer has 17 more titles getting the additional 50¢ special wage adjustment. First, every title should get this. Second, it should be back-dated to July 2001 when the contract expired. Third, it’s chump change.

The signing bonus is still only $400 before taxes. It won’t cover one months’ car note.

Four years is too long. It is designed to get the Democrats through the 2004 national elections with no visible conflict with labor. Once you start with 4-year contracts, it’s a real fight to get back to 3-year agreements.

Workers at seven-day operations workers would have to call-in sick two hours before their shift, rather than the current two hours into their shift. Lots of workers will suffer under this rule.

This contract comes after two years of mostly fruitless negotiations with two mayors. Archer wouldn’t really bargain, and Kilpatrick is worse. It shows that we must fight to win.

When we’re told there’s no money, think Benton Harbor. After the recent rebellion there Governor Granholm found $500,000 to put into summer jobs for youth. There are more Detroit city workers than residents of Benton Harbor. If we strike, money will appear just as miraculously.

But Michigan AFSCME Council 25 officials decided long ago to settle for what they could get without a fight. That attitude makes a lousy contract offer inevitable. When the members voted to strike last September, Council 25 officials ignored our vote.

Another NO vote will show that Council 25 can no longer deliver our votes to the Mayor on a platter. It will help to weaken Council 25’s control over the Locals, and increase the membership’s ability to fight and win.

To win, the members and their leadership need an attitude that we never give up without a fight. Especially when we can win! It is clear that Kilpatrick has burned many of his bridges with Detroiters, who now doubt everything he says. We must take advantage of the weakened position into which he’s put himself. We need a city-wide strike now.

Delaying a fight with Kilpatrick has worked to his advantage, not ours. Already the Water Department has given the Infrastructure Management Group (IMG) offices in the Water Board Building to pursue their right-wing, racist privatization agenda. IMG’s chief officers wrote a so-called Policy Study for the right-wing Republican Reason Foundation. It can be found on the web at rppi.org/ps303.pdf. It argues for privatizing everything – public lighting, water and sewerage, public transportation, even roads! You can imagine what sort of advice Kilpatrick is paying these right-wingers to give to the Water Department.

Privatization is part of a larger racist, anti-worker agenda. So it’s no surprise that the Reason Foundation (along with President Bush and a few other obscure, but well-funded right-wing groups) filed a brief with the Supreme Court opposing affirmative action in the UM cases. Kilpatrick helped the Republicans take over our schools. His dealings with the Reason Foundation further exposes him as a “Trojan Horse” for the racist takeover of our city.

We can lead the community and defeat Kilpatrick’s agenda if we unite and fight back! They said affirmative action was dead, but we chose to fight anyway. And we won! That should be a lesson for all struggles, including city workers’ fight for dignity and a fair contract. Vote NO on Kilpatrick’s rehashed insult! Fight to win!

Continued