We are MICHIGAN

In Michigan’s biggest rally of the year at the state Capitol in Lansing, more than 5,000 people raised signs and chanted slogans on April 13 to protest Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget and tax proposals.

But on that day, the Michigan House passed HB 4059, a bill that would prohibit public employers from providing release time to public employees to conduct union activities. At press time, the bill was pending in the Senate.

In early April, the governor and GOP leaders in the state House and Senate agreed on a hypocritical tax plan that would tax pensions, cut funding for public education for grades K through 12, and end the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for working poor families. Snyder and the Republicans then would use this money taken from the backs of working people to give an unbelievable windfall to corporations of nearly $2 billion in tax cuts.

Snyder has also signed legislation allowing “emergency financial managers” (EMFs) to be appointed for localities under “financial distress” and allowing them to remove locally elected officials, terminate collective bargaining, and force consolidation of schools, townships, cities and counties – all without seeking authority or approval from any elected body or from the people.

In mid-April, Detroit’s EMF sent pink slips to more than 5,500 teachers, laying them off and notifying them of his intention to use the powers established in the bill to modify their collective bargaining agreements. Also in April, Benton Harbor was the first Michigan town where the EFM legislation was used to strip the city council and the commissioners of all power, limiting their authority to calling a meeting to order, approving the minutes of meetings and adjourning meetings.

At press time, four bills attacking public sector collective bargaining rights had passed the Michigan House and were before the Senate.

Back on March 1, the governor eliminated collective bargaining rights for nearly 20,000 subsidized home-based child care providers – including UAW Local 727 members – in the Child Care Providers Together Michigan (CCPTM) unit.

Gwynne Marie Cobb contributed to this report