Labor & Employment Law

Thousands of Michigan Workers Protest Snyder?s Power Grab

By Mike Hall

More than 5,000?and the crowd is growing?Michigan union, community, education and other activists are on the Lansing Capitol grounds and inside the state House this afternoon to protest Gov. Rick Snyder?s (R) new ?financial martial law.?

The Detroit Free Press reports that the crowd chanted ?Take Michigan Back? as UAW President Bob King told the crowd, ?This is one day in a long battle.?

The so-called emergency managers bill, approved yesterday, would allow Snyder to declare a ?financial emergency? in a city or school district and appoint a manager with broad powers, including the ability to fire local elected officials, break teachers? and public workers? contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services?and even eliminate entire cities or school districts without any public input.

King also slammed Snyder?s 86 percent cut in corporate taxes accompanied by tax increases on working families and cuts to school budgets.

This governor and this Republican Party want to take almost $2 billion more off of working people in Michigan and who does he want to give it to? The wealthy, the corporations?for this governor to want to steal from them to give it to the wealthy, is that wrong?

The crowd roarded back “YES.”

Check out a live video stream from Lansing on filmmaker Michael Moore?s website here. You also can follow Moore?s live tweets from Lansing here. Click here for a photo gallery from the Lansing State Journal.

In related news, Ian Millhiser of Think Progress questions the constitutionality of Snyder?s law.

There?s a pretty serious problem with this power grab, however?invoking it would violate the Constitution. The Constitution forbids state laws ?impairing the Obligation of Contracts.? This provision provides a robust limit on a state?s ability to dissolve contracts between the government and a private party. As the Supreme Court explained in United States Trust Co. v. New Jersey, state laws impairing such contracts must be ?reasonable and necessary to serve an important public purpose.?

Click here for the full story.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).