A Call for Progressive Action

Calling Progressives: Geoffrey Fieger, Monica Lewis-Patrick, Jeff Edison, Rev. Ed Rowe, Ed Deeb, Nasser Beydoun, Rev. Bullock, Magic Johnson, Cornelius Pitts, JoAnn Watson, and all of the visionaries of Michigan...where the hell is our fight and our capacity to dump Snyder?

Photo from http://inthesetimes.com/images/articles/RIGHT_TO_WORK.jpg

A grassroots initiative is being mounted to lead and to galvanize our resources and talents in an effort to stem the tidal wave of attacks against our quality of life and we need all-on-deck to pull together the required dollars. 

The governor speaks about a "surplus," but doesn't mention where these funds came from. In Auschwitz and Buchenwald, there were surpluses as well...extra eye glasses, extra teeth, extra pairs of pants, dresses, socks, shoes, etc. 

Thousands of welfare mothers and their children were stripped of the meager cash assistance they were living on during a time of extreme unemployment across MI. Mental Health sites had their funding slashed or zeroed-out, entire public education systems closed, state funding owed to Detroit and other urban cities was not paid, pensions were taxed, and the greatest insult of all was the coronation of an EM who gets paid $1000/per hour -  $8,000 a day. 

A welfare mom with one child is entitled to $420/mo - $5040/per year! $8,000 per day versus $5,040 per yr?

Millions of our tax dollars are being paid out to scoundrels -- friends of the ones who helped put us in our current dilemma -- while we are being told day after day that we are a poor and backward city.  No more of this torture!

We need to amass $1 million dollars so we can run ads about "right to work," about how banks are destroying our neighborhoods, about EM's being put over bankrupt cities who are paid 3 and 4 times what elected officials earn, and how the plan is to sell-off our city assets to their families and friends at our expense.

-- What happened to democracy?
-- What happened to union workers who seem to have lost their voices and their courage?
-- What happened to our right to vote? 
-- What happened to our once progressive, militant churches who too often today stand in silence?
-- What happened to our standard of living and our right to look forward to better lives for our children?

Let's pull together, raise the money we need to mount state-wide campaigns, and let's inflict political casualties on their side instead of working people who are always suffering. We may not have Koch brothers money, but we for damned sure have millions of "boots on the ground" from which we can mount a non-violent offensive in Michigan from top to bottom, and from left to right! 

"I went down to the rich-man's house...to take back what he stole from me..."  Stay tuned for plans of action...

"At some point, silence suggests complicity."

Maureen D. Taylor, 
State Chairperson, MWRO 

BROKE-BACK DEMOCRATS!

'Cipients Speak!
by Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO

Workers entered a new world yesterday, one that will have ramifications for their futures forever. The legislation called “RIGHT TO WORK” means that workers will forever have the right to work for lower wages, for missing benefits, for non- existent safety regulations, and for no job protections against workplace offenses.

Michigan joins the rest of America and the 23 other states who have already passed similar legislation. The Governor of Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder, was quite candid as he analyzed what the “true” meaning was of this significant vote that has shaken the entire world. Gleefully, he explained that this was not an attack on organized labor but was, in fact, a measure that supports a worker’s right to choose! He went on to say that this legislation allows unions to demonstrate why they are important. If they are unable to convince workers that they are still relevant, workers should be able to stop paying dues. Contracts negotiated by those who decide to stay will still cover non-union employees.

Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Pontiac – these are all cities that are synonymous with the birth of organized labor. The powerful unions from that era marked forever the strength and the influence of blue-collar workers for years. There was a time when the General Motors worker was the highest paid worker in the world. All contractual agreements negotiated by municipalities, schools, and organizations from city to state were modeled after those written by organized labor. Why? Because these words took into consideration both the health and safety of those covered by those contracts. Wages that separated workers from poverty were negotiated. Health benefits that addressed the medical needs of workers and their families were settled. Time off, continuous training, all kinds of community services programs, blood drives, holiday fund-raisers, events for children and seniors alike – this is the legacy that organized labor has given millions of middle income families.

Yesterday, that world was changed forever. The race to the bottom has been fueled, the back of the Democratic Party - which depends on unions at election time - has been broken. Republicans, who depend on corporate dollars, have secured electoral victories for decades to come. Is this the battle we want to fight? Time to analyze what just happened, and why.

MWRO Opposition to Right To Work

Michigan Welfare Rights Organization stands against the awful, regressive “RIGHT TO WORK” laws being forced on workers in this State. We are not fooled by these slick t.v. commercials. All attempts to “trick” residents into believing that this law has anything to do with freedom of choice is a blatant lie and must be exposed.

The truth is that the corporate community has decided that the best way for them to continue to make maximum profits while not hiring us for work is to lower our wages, take away our benefits, develop robots and technology that replace us permanently; and to convince us that this is the American future for us all. This is NOT our future!

“RIGHT TO WORK” is an attack against organized labor and more. What is the UNION?? Unions are those workers that set livable wages for all. Unions are those workers that set safety regulations that suggest all ten finger and both lungs are sacred. Unions are those workers who set policies that protect women when management supervisors want a quick touch. Unions are those workers who won’t allow companies to force children to work in mines.

We have failed over the years to define what a UNION is and why they are important, a mistake that has now come to hurt us. The UNION movement was born at night, but not LAST NIGHT, so we are now forced into this fight for our lives and for the future of the next generation of workers. The percentage of organized labor unions is today at its lowest but we are not fooled into believing that those worker protections we owe to UNIONS are no longer critical.

Children, grandchildren, all the children will one day ask, “What did we do to stop this attack on our collective standard of living when the corporate beast came after our futures?” All workers, from those who are low income to those who are middle income to those who are upper income, should be alarmed at this attempt to turn the clock back. Tuesday, many of us will travel to Lansing to make our voices clear about this “RIGHT TO WORK” lie. It is but one step toward the long march to re-capture the future of the next generation.

Another World Is Possible, Another America Is Necessary. The “needs of the many must always outweigh the needs of the few.” You get what you organize to take.

Maureen D. Taylor
State Chair, MWRO

AFSCME Rally 9/23, Support Detroit City Workers

Reposted from Detroit Greens

AFSCME LOCAL 207 will be conducting a Union-Community Picket and Rally on Wednesday September 23, 2009 at the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center at 2 Woodward Ave. Detroit assembling at 4:30pm at the Spirit of Detroit statue.

We will be protesting against the severe contract concessions being pushed on Detroit city workers by Dave Bing and the layoff of over 1000 city workers and resulting cutbacks in public services.

Contact : John Riehl 207 President 313-919-5011
Michael Mulholland 207 Treasurer 313-995-5691

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO
Local 207 Public Utility Employees of The City of Detroit, Michigan
Michigan District Council #25

Website: afscme207.com
e-mail: afscme207@sbcglobal.net

600 West Lafayette, Suite L-106 – Detroit, Michigan 48226 – 313 965-1601 – Fax 313 965-1603

Workers, youth open fightback at Tent City

Excerpt reposted from Workers World

By Kris Hamel
Tent City, Detroit

June 16—Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income, universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class people are currently denied under the capitalist system.

More than 330 people registered for the four-day event. They have come from throughout metro Detroit and Michigan—even workers from the Upper Peninsula are at Tent City. Workers and activists from Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and more are represented.

The People’s Summit and Tent City, based in Grand Circus Park from June 14-17, was called in response to the National Summit of big-business CEOs and executives being held at the General Motors Renaissance Center—GM’s world headquarters.

“They’re going to regret the closing of 14 plants and the laying off of General Motors workers, because the workers are fighting back!” said Frank Hammer, a retired United Auto Workers International representative and leader of the Autoworker Caravan, as he opened the rally after a militant demonstration outside the big-business summit today.
American Axle workers.

More than 500 workers, including many from around Michigan and Ohio, marched in front of the GM Renaissance Center demanding jobs and human needs, not corporate greed. “The workers have spoken—keep the plants open!” was one of many chants that thundered from East Jefferson Avenue as dozens of cops and private thugs stood in formation guarding the privately owned Ren Cen.

As the workers marched and rallied for jobs, Richard Dauch, CEO of American Axle and Manufacturing, Inc., addressed the capitalists inside, along with former Michigan Gov. John Engler.

Read the rest of this story at Workers World. Image courtesy of Workers World. Tent City marchers photo by LeiLani Dowell.

We knew it was only a matter of time before new Mayor Dave Bing would start making his recommendations to privatize more parts of Detroit! Today, the point guard Mayor announced he wants to privatize the Detroit Public Lighting Department.

The Detroit Public Lighting Department--like most Detroit city government units--has an Interim Director and a history of poor service and budget problems. Public Lighting is responsible for street lights, traffic signals, and major facilities around the city including:

Coleman A. Young Municipal Center

City Airport

Detroit Public Libraries

Hart Plaza

Cobo Center

Joe Louis Arena

Wayne State University

Detroit Public Schools

Detroit Police and Fire Stations

McNamara Federal Building

Detroit Receiving Hospital

As reported in the Detroit Free Press, in an interview with Tavis Smiley on PBS, Mayor Bing rationalized his decision:

There are some things that here, in this city, that we ought not be doing as part of government. For example, we have a lighting department that, you know, we are not in that business. There are things that we do in city government that were necessary when you had the funding to do it, that we no longer have the revenue to do it anymore. And in some cases, it can be done cheaper and better on the outside.

Of course, our comrades at AFSCME 207--Detroit water and electrical workers union--are opposed to this and so are we! Just as we've seen in the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, outsourcing and privatizing these jobs does NOT save money and does NOT improve service! Laying off more city workers who know the city and bringing in outside contractors is not the solution. Ineffective directors and managers in these municipal departments have "created a perceived crisis," aptly described in the Michigan Ctizen by Call 'em' Out's Agnes Hitchcock due to their gross mismanagement!

There's talk about DTE taking over Detroit Public Lighting. If that happens, we can't wait to see which street lights will get shut off when the city forgets to pay its light bill. We're guessing it won't be those around the Manoogian Mansion or near Basketball Bing's highrise, riverfront apartment! Stay tuned....

(Image courtesy of Michigan Citizen)

“Capitalism vs Democracy”

‘Cipients Speak! December 2008
by Maureen D. Taylor, MWRO State Chair

As we come to the end of the year, MWRO sends out greetings to our members across the state and to the welfare rights members across the country, the front-line fighters. Don’t get weary now! The American worker is looking at this collapse of an economy that we have all grown up under, and many questions abound.

Most of our lives, we have equated capitalism with democracy. People have the right to make money at the expense of someone else. Lights, gas, water – all natural resources have been privatized as corporations make millions at the hands of our suffering, and we are taught that this is the “American way.”

Retirees put their trust in these same corporations, and allowed these snakes to invest their pensions in stock market ventures, and now that their precious dollars are gone, the message is, “too bad!” We have seniors living well below the poverty level, juggling decisions to pay bills or pay for prescriptions, and we are okay with that?

Veterans who served honorably are living in homeless shelters, and we are okay with that? Southern congressional officials are demanding that northern workers accept the no-benefit salaries paid to non-union workers, and we are okay with that?

Capitalism doesn’t mean democracy, it equals terrorism.

The door is open to start rebuilding the country based on a new standard of living. Welfare Rights supports a guaranteed annual income for those unable to secure employment that maintains a level of existence well above poverty. If we can spend $10B per month over eight years for wars, we can keep people fed, clothed, and out of harms way.

The technology exists today to feed folk, to build cars that run on vegetable oil, to build affordable homes, to provide healthcare, and to make America closer to the dream that it was built on. We have to construct a new point of view that emphasizes that the needs of the many are more important than the needs of the few. Thank you, Mr. Spock! Happy Holidays to All!

Blue Collar UAW Singled Out in Auto Bailout

We've been watching the Congressional hearings and the bailout developments with the Big 3--General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler--and have been following the new plan to insert a Car Czar into the mix. Having been hoodwinked by bank leaders who took the money and ran to spas and their shareholders before answering questions on how they got into this mess, current planners want answers before they cut checks.

While MWRO doesn't approve of any corporate welfare, it strikes us as unfair that automakers, whose majority of employees are blue collar workers, are being held to more scrutiny and higher standards than white collar Wall Street bankers. Before this latest fiasco, factory employees and workers in related industries already made major concessions in pay and benefits to keep these companies alive. Any trips to the spa were stopped a long time ago as it became harder to hold onto your job and your home. As reported on the UAW website:

The Economic Policy Institute reports that 3.3 million jobs would be lost if U.S. automakers collapse, with Michigan, California, Ohio, Texas, Illinois, Indiana and New York the biggest job losers.

Skilled United Automotive Workers (UAW) have made massive contributions to the labor standards that millions of U.S. (and international) workers have achieved: sit-down strikes forcing companies to bargain with employees, increased paid vacation, paid holidays, calls for postwar equal pay and full employment for women, cost-of-living pay increases, workers pensions, Supplemental Unemployment Benefits, paid hospitalization and sick day benefits, medical benefits for retirees, and more.

Sure, the Big 3 have plenty to answer for when it comes to poor quality vehicles and designs in recent times; and for dragging their feet to build environmentally friendly cars and trucks. But Michigan and the Midwest were built on the hard factory work and hard fought union organizing of people employed in these plants.

Detroit and southeast Michigan have suffered massively in jobs losses and housing foreclosures. Some say it's time for Detroit and Michigan to move beyond a manufacturing economy and embrace new technology and new employment sectors (like life sciences). The technology is already here, as evidenced by the increased roboticization of factory work where workers are replaced by robots that don't need benefits or bathroom breaks. But before Michigan workers can look toward tomorrow, they need some governmental help to maintain life today.