Unions, community groups challenge Detroit restructuring

During the week of March 15, corporate interests unveiled several initiatives to further usurp local control of Detroit.

Robert Bobb, the Detroit Public Schools emergency financial manager, announced that 45 school buildings would be closed by June. Bobb, an appointee of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, announced the plan at Renaissance High School to an invitation-only audience. The address was broadcast live over a number of major corporate radio and television outlets.

More than 100 activists and school employees picketed outside and then marched into the Renaissance auditorium, chanting, “This is our school!” Some protesters denounced the Skillman Foundation executives who were present for their role in dismantling Detroit’s public school system.

According to the New York Times, the plan to close the 45 schools “would eliminate as many as 2,100 jobs, in the face of a deficit expected to peak at $316.6 million and a dwindling student population.” (March 17)

The Detroit Federation of Teachers immediately rejected the plan. At a March 17 community meeting, the Coalition of Detroit Public Schools Unions called for a mass march from DFT headquarters to DPS headquarters on March 23.

A city with an official unemployment rate of approximately 28 percent, a foreclosure problem that worsens every year, and city governmental leadership that works exclusively on behalf of corporate interests, Detroit will be further weakened with the privatization of public education and the firing of workers.

However, the attacks are not confined to this majority African-American city. There have been large-scale cutbacks and layoffs of public sector employees throughout the southeastern Michigan region. Schools will be closed in several suburban communities.

Nationally, the trend is also toward school closings and downsizing. The Kansas City school district announced the closing of 28 schools this year.

Educator Carol Dantzler-Harris wrote: “These school closings usually happen in areas that can least afford it. Some of the schools were in trouble prior to the country’s economic woes; low performing schools result in parents pulling their children out to seek a better education. These schools have a difficult time attracting the best teachers and lack the resources they need.” (advanceweb.com, March 22)

Unions threaten to strike

In Detroit, city employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have protested Mayor Dave Bing’s attempts to impose a 10 percent wage cut and slash benefits. On March 16 AFSCME workers picketed outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. More than 500 workers then attended a public hearing with the Detroit City Council’s Internal Operations Committee.

The proposed benefit cuts include the requirement that employees purchase generic drugs; the elimination of paid lunch breaks; the suspension of tuition reimbursements; and the reduction of the age limit for dependents covered by health care, from 22 to 19 years of age.

Chants of “Strike!” emanated from the crowd. “We have no choice but to shut the city down this time because we are not going to take these concessions,” said Michael Mulholland, AFSCME Local 207 secretary-treasurer. (Detroit Free Press, March 18)

Richard Mack, an attorney representing AFSCME Council 25, called the proposed cuts “an effort to break the union, to break all these unions.”

Meanwhile, the Bing administration is moving forward with schemes to “rightsize” the city, in line with a corporate community agenda. A private foundation, the Kresge Foundation, is paying a so-called urban planner to implement plans to reconfigure the city. This will result in the mass dislocation of residents.

Even the Detroit News acknowledged that Kresge’s participation “underscores the influence of private foundations in Mayor Dave Bing’s downsizing initiative. Foundations, including Kresge, helped fund Data Driven Detroit’s block-by-block study of vacancies and housing conditions that could serve as a blueprint for neighborhood consolidations.” (March 18)

A spokesperson for Mayor Bing said that the city’s downsizing team “will expand as the effort progresses.”

Plans to slash pensions, axe Medical Center

Plans were recently announced for a state legislature bill that would effectively eliminate the elected municipal pension board, which oversees in excess of $5 billion in funds contributed by city workers. The legislation would transfer control from the pension boards to the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System, which faces an underfunding crisis.

The corporate media have accused the pension boards of making questionable investments. However, most employees and retirees feel that the city pension system is run efficiently.

In addition, the nonprofit Detroit Medical Center has announced a proposal for Vanguard Health System to acquire the institution. DMC board chairperson Steve D’Arcy called the proposal “the biggest private investment in the city of Detroit in history.” (Crain’s Detroit Business, March 21)

Detroit Receiving Hospital, a component of the DMC, provides health care to uninsured people. The takeover by Vanguard, a Tennessee-based firm, could change the entire character of the DMC and its policy on treating uninsured patients.

Fightback efforts continue

On March 23 a mass protest will take place outside Bing’s “State of the City” address. The Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs and AFSCME locals are mobilizing for the demonstration, which will demand a freeze on layoffs and pay cuts along with a moratorium on debt service payments to the banks by the city of Detroit.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition is demanding that Mayor Bing declare an economic state of emergency in Detroit and that Gov. Granholm enact a halt to all foreclosures, evictions and utility shut-offs. On March 27, the coalition will hold a Town Hall meeting to strategize a fightback and call for a massive federal public works program to put people back to work in Detroit and around the country.