Thousands of union workers swarm (Lansing) Capitol in protest

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Thousands of union workers swarm Capitol in protest
12:54 PM, Apr. 13, 2011
BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
DETROIT FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

LANSING – Several thousand union workers from around Michigan have gathered already for a mass demonstration expected to attract thousands to protest state budget and tax plans they say are unfair to the middle class.

It could be the largest rally yet at the Capitol, which has been host to more than a half dozen, largely organized by unions and AARP Michigan.

About 20 of Rochester Hills' 110 unionized city workers took a bus to join the rally, all members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 2491. Local president Jeff Fox said none have ever attended a protest event in Lansing, but they feel they and their city is threatened by such actions as the new law that gives emergency financial managers sweeping authority in fiscally troubled cities and school districts, including the ability to nullify employee union contracts.

“We’re protesting the state’s the governor’s new laws that force communities to follow the rules set down here in Lansing, instead of letting our communities negotiate with us to get what they need and get what we need,” said Fox, who held a sign on a stick that read, “Legislators, Stop the Attack on the Middle Class.”

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20110413/NEWS06/110413005/0/NEWS02/Thousands-union-workers-swarm-Capitol-protest?odyssey=nav%7Chead

[2banon]

1. We have to translate this action into a National General Strike

and make Washington DC the center of protest and demononstrations simultaneously.

I'm listening to Obama's speech right now, and I want to puke. He sounds like Bush.

[socialist_n_TN]

4. Not that I disagree, but a general strike is an "all in"

type of proposition. You make it HURT or you don't do it at all. That means you force EVERYBODY to strike even if they don't want to. You block their way to work, you occupy factories and shops (corporate shops, not Mom and Pops), you block streets and roads with bodies, cars, etc. In short, you do everything you can short of violence to SHUT THE ECONOMY DOWN!

And yes, you also use the day to demonstrate your displeasure in the streets, EVERYWHERE, including DC.

A general strike is SERIOUS business.

[2banon]

9. Yep. It is serious business. If not now, when?

How much worse do things have to be before we finally respond (en masse) to what's happening to us?

[socialist_n_TN]

11. OK, just wanted to make sure we were on the ..........

same page. :)

This Summer, I'm predicting and it's going to be a HARD row to hoe here in red state hell. The best we'll be able to do is some demonstrations in support. I have high hopes for the midwest and some of the more traditional blue areas though.

We'll probably have to do it something like a one day general strike to start the ball rolling and just let the capitalist know that we DO have something we can do. Withhold our labor. This summer.

[2banon]

12. A One Day General Strike to get the ball rolling is exactly my thinking..

However.. I'll certainly support a longer one if that happens organically.

[Wednesdays]

7. He sounds like Bush?

You mean he sounds like he's half-drunk, and speaks in incoherent, incomplete sentences?

[2banon]

10. Ok. Granted not a slobbering, jibberish alchoholic..

but Obama's not necessarily all that coherant either. For instance, what does "Winning the Future" even mean?

But what I actually meant, was the Orwellian nature of all politicians. Up is Down, Day is Night..

[They_Live]

2. almost all the comments at the site

are anti union. The "you're lucky to even have a job" mentality. Amazing.

[Taverner]

3. damn, this makes me want to hop a plane and fight alongside my ancestral homeland's residents

[Bozita]

5. Killer photo on the Detroit News website ...

I wish I knew how to shrink this thing.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110413/POLITICS02/104130432/Thousands-at-Capitol-to-oppose-Snyder-budget-plan

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/>

[Hubert Flottz]

6. Michigan has been no stranger to workers rights struggles...

The Battle of the Overpass

After a successful strike at Kelsey-Hayes, an automotive supplier, the tide seemed to turn against the UAW and it was decided to launch a major operation. On Jan. 11, 1937, the Reuther brothers organized a sit-down strike at the GM Fisher 2 plant in Flint. After a pitched three-hour battle with police, in which strikers were gassed and shot with buckshot, the workers routed the police with water hoses and makeshift industrial-sized slingshots, hurling two-pound metal hinges. In what became known as the Battle of the Running Bulls, the UAW began an offensive that snowballed.

In February, they staged an attack on the Flint Chevy Plant No. 4 after a diversionary pass at Chevy No. 9. That successful operation was the final blow to GM, which signed a contract with the UAW. In March of that year, 192,642 workers staged sit-down strikes at their jobs. Chrysler capitulated, then Studebaker and Cadillac. By early summer, Walter Reuther's West Side Local 174 had grown from 78 to 30,000 members. They had won an hourly minimum wage, abolition of piecework pay, grievance committees, seniority, and most importantly, a voice. Read More...



http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=172

[valerief]

8. Unless it's a couple dozen teabaggers, what media will care? nt