MWRO Sign-ups for DTE Affordable Payment Plan

You are invited to MWRO's third information session to sign up for a new DTE affordable payment program beginning this Fall. Qualified persons will also be eligible for bill arrearage forgiveness. Sessions will be held Friday, August 30 from 11am-1pm and 4-6pm at Central United Methodist Church, 23 E. Adams St, Detroit, MI 48226. (Free parking for the first two dozen cars to arrive, enter on Elizabeth St.)

Call (313) 703-5940 for more info and to sign up for one of the two sessions.

Since 2011, thousands of low income families have been cut-off of public assistance, struggled to find safe, affordable housing; and had difficulty making ends meet in this Emergency Manager-grand austerity economy. The utility crisis is one of many daily struggles Detroit area families have in keeping on lights for newborn babies and children, and keeping on breathing machines for elders who also need their medications refrigerated. Affordable payment options are one way to protect families but we must do more to ensure the health and well-being of low income families. Come join us to discuss what we can do.

Photo courtesy of Colorlines.com, Creative Commons.

We March Again at DTE

On Thursday, 2/11/10, a team of negotiators from MWRO met with DTE. While DTE has made some concessions, we are continuing to march to eliminate ALL wintertime shut-offs.

Therefore our next Resurrection March will be:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, noon-1 p.m.
DTE Headquarters
Bagley and Third Streets
(Near MGM Grand Casino)

More information about the negotiations will be coming soon! If you have questions, call MI Welfare Rights: (313) 964-0618.

Image features Marian Kramer, Co-Chair of the National Welfare Rights Union. Image courtesy of KennySnod, see his YouTube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20hlyk1NLG0

The Reagan Years Are Back Again In Detroit

Not since 1984, when President Reagan sold us a pile of mess called Trickle Down Economics have we seen such high unemployment rates in Michigan. The state reported unemployment rates of 12% in February 2009. Worse yet, Michigan's largest city, Detroit, reported an unemployment rate of 22.2%--the highest since 1983!

Apparently, these numbers don't even include the men and women who have simply given up looking, or who can only find part-time work. As more and more Michiganders are laid off from auto industry-related jobs, they're competing with low-income families in need of work and who are barely making ends meet.

We find that these families are also competing for jobs with senior citizens who can't afford their medications or high utility bills. Instead of sitting out on their porches or balconies, our elders are standing for hours at a time selling fast food or greeting customers!

And forget about any of our youth trying to get jobs. They have virtually no chance in these terrible economic conditions and will suffer the consequences later, as adults, when they have little or no job experience to show.

During these days of government handouts and bailouts to banks and businesses, the people of Detroit and Michigan need cash bailouts too! We don't need politicians promising tax credits or asking for our patience. Neither will buy groceries or pay the light bill! As citizens and taxpayers, we want and deserve the same assistance that is being given to the corporate welfare cronies across this country!

(Image courtesy Moronail.net)

How Dare You DTE!

An Open Letter from Ann Grimmett:

As a native Detroiter and a member of MWRO (a national welfare rights union), I was honored to be included in the hosting of a contingent in town mapping out the strategy for the 2nd US Social Forum to be held here in Detroit in June of 2010.

In route to one of many sessions, I traveled thru Mexican Village near the Ambassador Bridge, and the (under construction) Gateway Project. On the way up W. Vernor, I noticed the building located at W. Vernor and 20th St., the former sight of the Detroit Police Department's 2nd Precinct, under the Detroit-Wayne County Port Authority.

This building, although boarded up, was obviously (in broad daylight), VERY well lit, INSIDE! What struck me was that DTE chooses to shut off the service (even to the point of causing death,) of residents who desperately need it for the maintenance of life saving medical equipment, while this defunct building has electric service running day and night! This is SO diabolical it makes me ill! WE are going to have to hold these soulless, wicked, inhuman, corporate devils accountable, NOW!!

Image from MWRO: Lights are on at the boarded up former Detroit Police Dept 2nd Precinct, closed for more than a year!