Labor & Employment Law

UAW: Michigan Governor?s Priorities Out of Whack With Citizens

By James Parks

UAW  leaders condemned Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder?s decision yesterday to eliminate collective bargaining rights for home-based child care providers.

During a press conference this afternoon in Detroit, UAW President Bob King said Snyder?s decision, coupled with his disastrous proposed state budget, are part of the escalating national Republican war being waged against working people. King said:

It’s unfortunate to see the Michigan Republican legislature and executive branch?led by Governor Snyder?join this attack on the middle class. 

Snyder?s administration announced it will stop deducting union dues for the nearly 20,000 people who provide child care at home. That move will devastate child care providers, said  Amy Woodard, president of UAW Local 7127. The union is the only avenue they have to get their problems resolved, she said.  The workers are represented by the UAW and AFSCME. 

Woodard added the decision is an attack on low-income families, because most of the child care providers are among the working poor. ?If they don’t have help getting what they’re due, they’ll be worse off than before.”

A lot of people are going to be devastated, and it’s not fair for the kids. Most people aren’t doing child care for the money. They’re doing it because they love kids. 

Snyder’s budget proposal taxes pensions of retirees on fixed incomes, slashes the state’s education system and raises taxes on the working poor by eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said:

The fact that yesterday’s announcement comes on the heels of the governor’s budget proposal just shows that his priorities are out of whack with the desires of Michigan citizens, who believe in collective bargaining and the right of working people to earn a living wage. 

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 03, 2011 (boomark / email).