Labor & Employment Law

In Michigan, Attack on Workers and on Democracy

By admin

Jesse Sipe, Michigan State AFL-CIO field communications representative, sends us this report.

While people around the world have been fighting for freedom and democracy, the Michigan legislature has recently taken a step in the opposite direction. The Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation that will greatly extend the powers of emergency financial managers (EFMs). This bill essentially will take away our voting power by allowing EFMs to remove locally elected officials without seeking authority or approval from any elected body or from the people. 

This bill is not just an attack on workers?it is an attack on democracy itself. 

The Senate is expected to readily follow suit, as Republican lawmakers find this bill necessary to cut costs and pull Michigan out of this crippling budget deficit. If this legislation is passed, it will create a system with no checks and balances on the power that emergency financial managers will wield.  The constitutionality of this bill is heavily questioned due to this fact. 

In addition to nullifying citizens? vote, emergency financial managers will have the power to reject, modify, or terminate collective bargaining agreements. This is an outright attack on labor, echoing legislation we have seen in Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana. Republican legislators are spearheading these anti-union bills, which are set to effectively fix the economy at the expense of middle-class working families.

It is not that emergency financial managers are a bad thing?they have helped struggling communities get back on track throughout Michigan. The problem lies in the sweeping power EFMs will be able to wield and how quickly this bill is being pushed through without any reform. Flint, Mich., has been in a fiscal crisis for decades now, highlighted in films such as Michael Moore?s “Roger & Me.” It is expected that Flint will be the test case for the new EFM?s powers, as the town is on track to being bankrupt by March 25.

Lawmakers from Flint do not agree with this legislation, however, saying that we should focus on real solutions that will create jobs and not attack the working men and women of our communities.

?Short-sighted budget gimmicks by previous Lansing politicians have broken promises and partnerships with cities like Flint, and now some of these new proposals will make things worse,? said state Rep. Jim Ananich (D-Flint) who opposed this legislation. 

By working together to protect jobs and wages and relieve financial burdens on middle-class families, we can turn our economy around and eliminate the need for state takeovers.

The working people of Michigan do not agree with this political power grab, and more than 3,000 workers who gathered at the Capitol in Lansing throughout the week can attest to that. By creating a position that has unyielding power to remove locally elected officials and nullify collective bargaining agreements, the state legislature will effectively kill democracy.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 01, 2011 (boomark / email).