Detroit News Editorials - 2011
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DECEMBER 21, 2011
Labor voices: Workers, public schools attacked
by KARLA SWIFT, President - Michigan State AFL CIO

As 2011 comes to a close, Lansing politicians have been recklessly passing bills that will hurt middle-class Michigan families — and passing them with alarming speed. Instead of working together to solve the jobs crisis, these elected officials have been pushing Dickensian attacks on the 99 percent here in Michigan, going after jobless benefits, worker compensation and even our public schools.

With a jobless rate that is still painfully high, unemployment benefits provide a critical lifeline for thousands of Michiganfamilies. Political jockeying in Washington, D.C,. put over 66,000 jobless workers at risk of losing all their assistance this winter, but Lansing politicians are making the situation far worse.

State lawmakers already enacted legislation last spring that cut the maximum of jobless benefits from 26 to 20 weeks.

A recent study by the Michigan League for Human Services found that in comparison to eight surrounding states, we have the lowest benefits, our laid-off workers are least likely to be eligible for unemployment insurance and in 2012 we will have the fewest weeks of benefits available.Senate Bill 806 passed in Lansing last week and will reduce eligibility further, with over 30 provisions that shift the balance toward business, creating more hurdles and delays for jobless workers.

It is outrageous that CEOs and corporations that have shipped jobs overseas are now going to benefit from new eligibility restrictions to deny jobless benefit claims.It isn't only laid-off workers who'll be paying the price for politicians' misplaced priorities. Michigan workers hurt on the job will find it far more difficult to make it through because of House Bill 5002.

It is a power grab that subtracts imaginary wages from benefits, regardless of an injured worker's ability to find a job in the real world. Like SB806, HB5002 will make it more difficult for families in crisis to get back on their feet.

Perhaps the most cynical of the damaging bills rushed through this week is Senate Bill 618, which benefits for-profit charter schools regardless of the impact on our schools or state students. This bill gives political payback to those that would make a profit from our schools but provides for no protections to children and parents.

The bill allows the opening of an unlimited number of charter schools, yet lacks accountability to guarantee that these new charters are run by effective operators with track records of success. For-profit schools are nothing more than political games played with our children's education, and there are other dangerous bills filed in Lansing already.

A new year gives a renewed opportunity to focus on what's really important, the jobs that will get our economy back on track. Making life much more difficult for families in crisis and taking away needed resources from public school students won't get Michigan back to work. Our elected leaders can and must do better in 2012.

Karla Swift is president of the Michigan AFL-CIO.

November 16, 2011

Now is not the time to alter workers comp law

Revisions to law won’t create jobs but will cause workers to lose wages, opportunities

by KARLA SWIFT, President - Michigan State AFL CIO

Last week's election results should give Michigan senators pause as they consider the workers compensation bill passed by the House of Representatives.

This latest legislative attack is the kind of overreach soundly rejected by voters in Michigan, Ohio and across the country. House Bill 5002 is a giveaway to big corporations and special interests at the expense of Michigan workers injured on the job. It would transform a system that works fairly and efficiently into one that guts workers benefits using imaginary wage and pension deductions and limits choices for medical treatment.

At a time when voters want to see quick action solving the jobs crisis, this bill creates no jobs but will hurt injured Michigan workers.

Workers and small businesses aren't clamoring for major workers compensation changes.

Our workers compensation system has some of the lowest rates in the nation. Rates have been dropping for years and are expected to be reduced by over 7 percent next year. Passing this bill would have no appreciable effect on Michigan's competitiveness.

It is being pushed by some big special interests — primarily the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Manufacturers Association — and would take from injured Michigan workers for the benefit of corporate CEOs.

When a firefighter, construction worker or nurse is hurt at work, entire families suffer. Workers compensation is intended to help these workers stay afloat as they recover. Current law ensures that once a worker is able to return to work, they must do so or else they forfeit their benefits. If a worker is unable to perform their previous job but offered another that the worker can physically perform, the worker must accept it or lose benefits, and their benefits are reduced by wages earned. This works for injured workers and businesses alike.

HB5002 would turn the system on its head by changing the law so that employees would not only lose their workers compensation by the wages they earn when they return to work, but by the amount of wages they could possibly earn at a job not even offered to them. It would allow employers to reduce workers comp benefits based on wages an employee doesn't earn from a job they do not have. This concept is absurd and would penalize workers based on no fault of their own.

The bill would also force older workers to choose between early retirement and having workers compensation benefits reduced. Injured workers could lose thousands in pension benefits after being sidelined by forced retirement. It also takes away workers' choices when seeking needed medical treatment.

These changes are too extreme for Michigan. Voters are still outraged at the Lansing politicians who pushed a tax hike for retirees. People are demanding an economy that works for everyone, including the 99 percent who are left out when laws are written only for the benefit of CEOs and Wall Street bankers.

Michigan Senators should focus on jobs, not tearing down a workers comp system that works.

Karla Swift is president of the Michigan State AFL-CIO, a federation of Michigan labor groups.

 
 
 
April 20. 2011

Mark T. Gaffney

Let's not emulate the Badger state

I am often asked these days if, in Michigan, we are like Wisconsin. With a heavy influence of tea party politicians and many geographic, political and economic similarities, we could be.

I answer the question; "Are we Wisconsin?" by saying "We could become Wisconsin on the installment plan."

On the one hand, Gov. Snyder respects some collective bargaining rights and intends to bargain with his employees at the state, later this year. On the other hand, our governor ended the collective bargaining rights and employee status of almost 26,000 child care workers who still belong to the UAW and the AFSCME union. Their wages are proposed in the governor's budget to drop to $1.35 an hour per child.

In another test, three separate right-to-work (for less) bills seem bottled up in the legislature for now, but on the other hand we have the emergency manager law. The EM situation is a direct attack on collective bargaining (as well as the powers of duly elected officials). If only half of the cities (up to 40 by our analysis) and schools (60 estimated) that are on the edge financially, go into emergency management, at least 25,000 workers could lose their union contracts and bargaining rights for up to five years (50 municipalities times an average of 500 workers).

But that is before large budget cuts are imposed by the state for cities and schools. If cities lose a third of their revenue from the state, and schools lose $470 per pupil, as is proposed, it is not unreasonable to assume double the number of municipalities taken over by an emergency manager.

In that case, 200 municipalities times 500 workers could result in up to 100,000 workers losing their voice at work, their contract and their collective bargaining rights for up to five years. Not as immediate as Wisconsin's Gov. Walker, but this would be a drastic change in our state's labor relations.

There are plenty of examples of tea party-style legislation introduced in Michigan's Capitol, and some goes beyond Wisconsin. Senate Bill 7 is moving now.

It tells an employer they cannot, by law, pay any more than 80 percent of their employee's health care costs, no matter how much current savings those employees have already produced or current costs shared. That doesn't end collective bargaining, but it certainly curtails it and restricts the choices and creativity of both employers and workers in the collective bargaining process. Amendments to this bill are sorely needed, and that amendment process will go a long way toward answering "Are we Wisconsin?"

Other examples include House Bill 4052 which prohibits union members from meeting in a public place (one owned by their public employer). House Bill 4059 prohibits employers from paying the union steward or union elected committee person for their time spent trying to work out workplace problems with the management.

Yes, when the tea party legislators curtail union collective bargaining, they are also taking bargaining rights, choices and opportunities away from management, our partners in collective bargaining.

Other assaults on collective bargaining introduced in the House or Senate include SB 165 and HB 4287. Both remove unions' and employers' right to bargain over project labor agreements (often involving wage concessions and enhanced safety issues, as well as worker representation issues).

While we at the AFL-CIO are currently tracking 42 different bills that we think would harm working Michiganians, one particular issue will go a long way toward showing if we, in Michigan, will do a legislative public worker assault like Wisconsin, or not.

HB 4309 through HB 4312 removes collective bargaining and current workers' contracts if their municipal employers form an authority. We know it's appropriate to renegotiate and build new agreements for the employees when a new employer entity is legally formed. We don't agree however, that occurrence should cost a worker their current rights during the process. The state should require new bargaining, but not end the currently existing agreements arbitrarily. One response punishes workers for having (former) rights and leaves their families at risk, the other process respects and continues, even encourages, the collective bargaining process.

Are we like Wisconsin? The Michigan labor movement would certainly prefer not to be so. Our response and approach will depend on the tea party legislators' offense.

Mark Gaffney is president of the Michigan AFL-CIO, a federation of Michigan labor groups. Email comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

January - 2011
By President Mark Gaffney

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as ‘right to work.’  It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’  Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining.”  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We believe that when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said these words, he well understood the importance of a good paying job, and what strong unions and collective bargaining rights mean in our economy.

This year, for the many jobless Americans, their New Year’s resolution was simply to get a decent paying job that’ll cover the bills.

Meanwhile, those at the top are back on solid ground with corporate CEOs all over America getting massive bonuses and spending them on Mercedes Benz cars and Louis Vuitton clothes.

If there was ever a time for balance, that time is now.

For every-day Americans, our economy is in terrible shape – our national unemployment rate continues to linger just under 10 percent.  In Michigan, 12.4% of our workforce have been unable to find a job for reasons far beyond their control.  Many have been unemployed for over a year.

So many of our jobs are setting sail overseas that we could call the CEOs shipping them modern day pirates, robbing us of our jobs and sending them to China.  According to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan has lost 414,600 manufacturing jobs in this past decade, going from 898,900 manufacturing jobs at the beginning of the decade to 484,300 last year.

We recently learned that Steelcase, a Grand Rapids company with non-union production workers, is laying off 400 more Michigan residents and sending their jobs to Mexico.  These Corporate CEOs pushed for years to cut worker protections and pass free trade deals with a promise of greater economic prosperity.  Unfortunately for working people, that economic success only translated to less than one percent of the population.  Bonus for Wall Street? Still happening.  Banks bailed out while individuals are foreclosed upon?  Still happening.  Wages declining for some while others advance?  Still happening.

Our American economy definitely needs balance in order to work for all.  The economic power that unions provide, works for the middle class and for those at the bottom.  That’s why it’s not just outsourcing that big companies are focusing on. They’re looking at every avenue to tilt the scale even further towards themselves.  That includes electing people who will help them pass outsourcing legislation and laws that will weaken one of the few protections working people have left – unions. Big oil, chemical, tobacco and some billionaires like the Koch brothers were huge contributors during the last election and are looking for payback.

Right now, some leaders in Michigan are talking about taking up legislation that would move our economy further away from balance by seeking to weaken or eliminate unions.  We must question if very conservative, right wing politicians really have the average working family in mind when they try to weaken the groups that protect wages and benefits of average workers.  This would be a mistake.

There are certain rights that all working Americans deserve: fair wages, right to unionize, a voice in the workplace, freedom from discrimination, and affordable health coverage.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized that.  Unions in Michigan and America will continue to work and provide these rights for all workers, even in this increasingly plutocratic era of corporate power and conservative politicians.