Detroit water workers strike over

 News  No Responses »
Oct 052012
 

Satisfied with promises the City of Detroit made to Detroit sewage-plant employees, the union that represents them ended its five-day strike against the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, AFSCME Local 207 said in a news release.

“The courts, the mayor, the Water Board, working in concert, could not defeat this strike,” Local 207 president John Riehl said in the statement.

The tentative agreement with city officials included reinstatement of the 34 fired workers who walked out on Sept. 30, a promise by city officials to discuss the issues the workers struck over, and a promise to reopen their labor contract for renegotiation if the union wins a federal appeal, according to Riehl.

The appeal is on the Oct. 9 docket in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. The appeal has three different case numbers that are listed for the same hearing.

The union is appealing rulings in September and November 2011 by federal district court Judge Sean Cox, who also ordered the Oct. 1 temporary injunction against the Local 207 strikers. Cox’s 2011 rulings ordered the City of Detroit to meet 1977 EPA findings under the federal Clean Water Act. Also in November 2011, Cox denied the request of Michigan Council 25 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees to intervene in the case. Local 207 is part of AFSCME Council 25.

Cox denied the city’s request to dismiss. But he also ruled that in reorganizing to comply with the EPA findings, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and the city don’t have to observe city ordinances, the city charter, and union and labor contracts.

Shanta Driver, an attorney representing Local 207 in the negotiations with the city, said in the statement that the tentative agreement shows that the people of Detroit can fight off privatization or a takeover by the suburbs surrounding Detroit. The Detroit water department provides water and sewer service to cities and towns within an approximately 1,000-square mile area.

Riehl ‘s statement said Local 207 will continue to negotiate with the city and members will vote on any final contract.

 

Detroit water workers’ strike in photos, part 2.

 Photojournalism  2 Responses »
Oct 032012
 

With everything on the line, Detroit wastewater workers stayed out on the picket line despite a temporary federal-court injunction ordering them to go back to work. In Michigan, it is illegal for public employees to strike.  The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department workers are among approximately 950 represented by Local 207 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. About 450 of them work at the sewage treatment plant.

The Detroit water department recently announced it plans to cut 81% percent of workers’ jobs over five years, leaving on the payroll only about 400 of its nearly 2,000 employees. It also said it plans to shave 10% off all workers’ paychecks. The wastewater plant serves 35% of Michigan’s population in Detroit and 76 other towns and cities over about 950 square miles. The city provides fresh water to about 40% of Michigan’s population in Detroit and nearly 130 other towns over nearly 1,000 square miles.

AFSCME Local 207 is part of Michigan AFSCME Council 25, which on Tuesday called for the strikers to go back to work. Still, a headline on the council’s online letter to the strikers described the strike as a “walkout caused by frustrations felt by good people doing dirty, dangerous work without the most basic tools.”

 

On the third day of the strike, Detroit police parked a bus at an intersection a quarter mile from the strikers’ picket line. According to Local 207, the bus disgorged dozens of tactical police.  It was one tactic the city used to get many strikers  and other union members to cross the picket line. Photo by Terry Hall

 

 

John Riehl, president of AFSCME Local 207, holds up the press release announcing suspension without pay of the 34 strikers who first walked out on Sept. 30. The DWSD chief sent each a certified letter that also said they’ll be fired  in a week on Wednesday, Oct. 10. The suspended workers have until Friday to appeal their firings. Photo by Terry Hall

 

 

AFSCME Local 207 members inform truck drivers that the strike is still on. Another tactic the city is using to break the strike is a promise that no strikers who cross the line will be disciplined, and that those who didn’t want to cross could use sick days unless they stood in the picket line. Photo by Terry Hall

 

 

The Detroit Wastewater Plant is the nation’s largest single-site sewage treatment facility. It opened in 1940.  Photo by Terry Hall

 

Photos: Detroit water workers strike

 Photo Galleries  2 Responses »
Oct 012012
 

Workers at the Detroit system that provides water to most of Southeast Michigan walked out early Sunday, Sept. 30.  The board that oversees the water department plans to eliminate 81% of about 2,000 jobs at one of the nation’s largest water and sewer utilities, which serves 40% of Michigan’s population over a 1,000 square miles. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department workers are represented by Local 207, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

 

AFSCME Local 207 picket line at the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant.  Photo by Terry Hall

 

 

Detroit provides water and sewage service to nearly 4 million people in Southeast Michigan.     Photo by Terry Hall

 

 

Striking member of Local 207, American Federation of State, City, and Municipal Employees. Photo by Terry Hall

 

“Detropia” is gritty, raw, poignant

 Occupy arts, Opinion, Videography  No Responses »
Sep 282012
 

If there’s one documentary, or for that matter, one film you see in a theater this year, I recommend Detropia.

The documentary is an artfully honest look at the harsh realities of post-industrial Detroit, a place so universally fascinating that the film opened in NYC .

Directed and produced by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Detropia unrolls the devastating consequences of the decline and seemingly sudden collapse of manufacturing in the capital of the U.S. auto industry. Ewing, who was born in Detroit, and Grady spent two years living in and recording people in Detroit.

They chose well in the handful of people whose stories blend into a seamless presentation of Detroit past and present.

It’s not surprising that the audience is pulled in by the president of a dying UAW local and its members, whose lives depict the bitter choices and painful conditions facing the remaining autoworkers left behind.

But there also are unexpectedly familiar contributors, like Detroit video blogger and poet Crystal Starr. Starr’s also a barrista at a coffee shop/performance space well-known to Occupy Detroiters.

For those from or living in Detroit, you’ll see a familiar landscape in an engrossing new way. But fair warning: I’m not talking about a feel-good tour. Detropia  is shot in dark, stark style that sets the mood of the entire piece. It includes grainy or somewhat out of focus elements. Like the Detroiters it portrays, the documentary doesn’t pull any punches or dress up the raw truth, and it may bring you to tears.

Ewing and Grady reveal the human damage created by 1% behavior, by greedy corporations that closed factories and left the shells behind. Detropia doesn’t explore the future. It leaves it for us to contemplate, to imagine for ourselves what it will be.

Detropia’s most poignant message is that a city is defined by its people. Without them, only empty, burned-out buildings and hopeless, empty streets remain.

–Terry Hall 

Detropia runs through Thursday, Oct. 4, at the Main Art Theater in Royal Oak, three to four showings a day. 

 

The police chief and the consent agreement

 News  No Responses »
Jun 252012
 

Detroit police Chief Ralph Godbee is using this YouTube post to prepare officers for reduced standards of living and working under the city’s controversial consent agreement with the state of Michigan. He urges all police department employees to accept cuts in wages and benefits so that he won’t have to lay off any more officers.

“There will absolutely be some critical sacrifices we all must make,” Godbee says. “Yet I implore everyone to really understand that without these structural changes, our department will be drastically reduced even further.” Only one of the three police department unions has a contract. The other two have expired, Godbee said.

The consent agreement, which the city also calls a financial stability agreement, frees the city from negotiating with employees starting July 12. According to the official summary of the consent agreement, when a union contract expires, the city can let it lapse and set wages and benefits unilaterally.

Godbee says the current Detroit city budget cut away $75 million, or almost one fifth, of the department’s funding. That means Godbee already is struggling to cut 380 jobs, mostly by not replacing people who leave or retire and, according to the Detroit News, by requiring all job applicants to work as volunteer reserve officers before they’re put on the payroll.

Worse, Godbee says, under the 2012-2013 budget that starts July 1, the department still has 108 more people working than it can afford. The city of Detroit employees almost 10,800 people, down from 13,400 when Mayor Dave Bing took office, according to Bing’s state of the city address in March. The cuts continue.

The consent agreement restructured Detroit government so that it is controlled by a nine-member, non-elected financial advisory board that works with and answers to two new, non-elected officials in the mayor’s office: a program management director, and a chief financial officer. The city council approved the agreement in late April. The advisory board, which includes the president of Charter Bank of Michigan, began meeting in mid-June.

Bing and Gov. Rick Snyder have argued that the consent agreement lets city and state governments share control of city affairs instead of turning everything over to a non-elected emergency manager. Under the vilified Public Act 4, Michigan’s emergency manager law, the governor could appoint a single person to control all city finances and control all city operations. That includes firing elected officials, closing departments and agencies, outsourcing public services such as street lighting or buses, selling off public assets such as parks, and, of course, voiding union contracts.

–Janet Braunstein

Lyrics: “Hands Off My Clam”

 Occupy arts, Opinion  No Responses »
Jun 192012
 

Singer, songwriter, comedian Lisa Koch wrote the lyrics and performed this on-point parody, slightly modified in response to the silencing of Michigan Rep. Lisa Brown for using the word “vagina” in a debate over legislation on the subject.

Hands Off My Clam
Copyright 2012 Tongueinchc Productions

I’d like to do a song right now on the recent attack on women, ’cause no one knows more about women’s issues than middle-aged white men with comb-overs.

To the tune of “Stand By Your Man”
Sometimes, it’s hard to be a woman.
‘Specially right now, it’s just a crime.
There’s a war on women.
It’s lookin’ grim and
sending us right back to Medieval times.

The GOP, they’re on a mission,’cause men know what’s best for all us gals. Apparently.
They’re rollin’ back the ’60s, pullin’ out all their tricksies …
I can’t believe I still have to protest this shit. Seriously?

Hands off my clam, my uterus and ova.
Yes, we need birth controll-a
’cause you won’t wrap your pickle.

Hands off my clam, my cervix and vajayjay.
Your moral crap is just a sham.
Hands off my clam.

Don’t you guys have anything better to do, like jobs, or the economy? Or passing any legislation whatsoever? But no, you are frightened of my vagina. Vagina, vagina, vagina, vagina. I said it. To be fair, you’re frightened of a lot of things: gay marriage, evolution, Harry Potter, Rachel Maddow, NPR, WNBA … the list goes on.

Oh, but I mean, wouldn’t you like to just climb into the teeny, tiny brains of these guys and hear exactly what they’re thinking?

To tune of “If I Only Had a Brain“:
I’d eliminate abortions,
with murder and extortion,
’cause fetuses are peeps. Yes, they are!
I’d defund contraception,
say the hell with sex prevention,
’cause there’s Jesus in my heart.

I would vote against gay marriage
and fags I would disparage,
But Lesbians, well … I like to watch them on porn.
If you’re queer best beware
’cause Mitt Romney’s cuttin’ hair,
and there’s Jesus in my heart.

I’d slice and dice and cut
like Head Start, what a bore.
Cut meals and housing for the old and poor
and then I’d golf, and cut some more.

If your husband likes to beatcha,
just smile ’cause it’ll teach ya
to always toe the line.
And your pay will be smaller
76 cents on the dollar
’cause the Bible said it’s fine.

Oh. Oh, God, we’re in trouble, aren’t we? It is not pretty out there. You know, things would be really simple if I was in charge. If I was in charge …

I’d propose new legislation
Viagra regulation
to keep men safe from harm
(Oh, it’s for your own good.)
I’d require a rectal
with a giant, cold projectile
and electrodes on your bacon
so we’d know if you were fakin’…

Oh, I’m sorry. That was my outside voice, wasn’t it? Yeah.

Well, the point is, after you have had your exam, you’d have to go through a mandatory waiting period, and then you have to attend a class, and then you’d have to watch a movie on potential side effects.

And then you’d have to discuss the moral implications of killing perpetually thousands of “sperm-persons” every time you unload. And then you’d have to wait two weeks, at least, until you got your prescription. And then, uh, you’d have to pay for it, ’cause insurance doesn’t cover it. Sorry.

If I only was in charge.

So this goes out to all the woman-hating, racist, homophobic batshit crazy fundamentalist right-wing morons and your big ‘ol corporate Daddy Top: Get your head out of my oven.

Hands off my clam,
my tubes and my poonany.
Your moral crap is just a sham.
Hands off my clam!

Vagina.

People versus font

 Editorial, News  1 Response »
Jun 172012
 

Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law was signed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder on March 16, 2011, effective the same day. It enables a governor to appoint an emergency manager to take control of local governments and school districts found insolvent by a review board. The review board is appointed by the governor, and, yes, so is the emergency manager.

The emergency manager serves at the pleasure of the governor; only the governor can fire one. The act allows an appointed EM to break labor contracts, make sweeping budget cuts, fire elected officials, and sell city assets, among other powers, without the consent of the public or the people the public elected to serve them. Why? According to the following excerpt from the law, officially called Public Act 4 of 2011:

“The legislature hereby determines that the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of this state would be materially and adversely affected by the insolvency of local governments and that the fiscal accountability of local governments is vitally necessary to the interests of the citizens of this state to assure the provision of necessary governmental services essential to public health, safety, and welfare. The legislature further determines that it is vitally necessary to protect the credit of this state and its political subdivisions and that it is necessary for the public good and it is a valid public purpose for this state to take action and to assist a local government in a condition of financial stress or financial emergency so as to remedy the stress or emergency by requiring prudent fiscal management and efficient provision of services, permitting the restructuring of contractual obligations, and prescribing the powers and duties of state and local government officials and emergency managers. The legislature, therefore, determines that the authority and powers conferred by this act constitute a necessary program and serve a valid public purpose.”

In other words, the state believes control of selected cities, towns and school districts in financial trouble should be transferred to state-appointed managers with powers that would be unconstitutional for elected officials to use. The state decides which cities these are.

Activists across Michigan continued protesting after the signing of Public Act 4, which strengthens and broadens powers held by an “emergency financial manager” under a previous version of the law.

In fact, activists collected 228,000 signatures, more than enough, on a petition to put repeal of Public Act 4 to a vote on the November 6, 2012, Michigan statewide ballot. If the repeal stays on the ballot, the law will be suspended.

But the Michigan Board of State Canvassers challenged the petitions’ validity on grounds that the three-word headers were printed in the wrong font size: 12-point instead of the required 14-point. It was acting on a complaint from Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, a group formed by members of the politically conservative and partisan Michigan Chamber of Commerce to oppose ballot petitions they disagree with.

To decide whether the font was the right size or not, the board of canvassers called experts to testify. In this video,  expert witness Michael Migrin, who retired after 22 years as a printer for the state, says the font size is correct and describes with some amusement his view of the partisan pettiness of challenge (don’t miss his tie):

Chris Corneal, a Michigan State University professor, also provided expert testimony finding the font size correct.

Made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, the board  split the vote. The Democrats voted to accept the petition while the Republicans voted to deny it, despite the expert testimony.

To break the tie, the question went to a three-judge Michigan Court of Appeals panel. The judges, all Republicans, acknowledged that a 30-year-old precedent that required them to accept an imperfect petition if it substantially complies with the law. Still, they asked that a panel of seven special judges consider it further, delaying the petition again. The full appeals court voted to refuse and ordered the board of canvassers to put the question on the November ballot.

It’s not difficult to imagine why all of this effort, time, and cost was exhausted around a trivial technicality, in fact, a false technicality. Desperate measures wasted taxpayer money in a partisan attempt to block a ballot measure restoring power to the citizens. Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility likely knew the conclusion but hoped to create a delay long enough to keep the proposal off the November ballot. Justice has prevailed, this time. Republicans learned valuable lesson: size doesn’t matter.

The question remains whether the case will go to the Michigan Supreme Court and, if it does, whether the court will hear it. Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility plans to appeal, according to a spokesman for the group. Hopefully, their appeal won’t be delayed by paperwork submitted in the wrong font type.

– Terry Hall

 

Mayor, Detroit City Council tussle over consent agreement

 News, Photojournalism  3 Responses »
Jun 112012
 

Detroit Mayor Bing. Photo by Terry Hall

In the continuing struggle over a consent agreement that takes control of City of Detroit finances and operations and puts them into state hands, Mayor Dave Bing again urged the Detroit City Council to stop fighting it.

Bing spoke to the council a day before a scheduled hearing on a case challenging the validity of the consent agreement. Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal Crittendon, who filed the suit, argues that legally the city can’t sign an agreement with the state until the state pays what it owes Detroit: about $300 million.

 But Bing and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder have warned repeatedly that the city will run out of cash at week’s end, leaving it unable to pay employees, let alone a $34.2 million bond payment, if the consent agreement is held up in court. At Tuesday’s meeting, Bing demanded the city attorney drop the case.

JoAnn Watson: "It sounds like extortion." Photo by Terry Hall

City council members agreed to wait for the judge’s decision on June 13. 2012. The argument: the council has no authority to drop litigation filed by the autonomous corporation counsel, or city attorney. Furthermore, council members agreed, moving ahead before any litigation is settled would be financially irresponsible.

Bing said he has no quarrel with the city council or with Crittendon. He simply disagrees with the city attorney’s recommendation.

But Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said the governor should follow his own anti-bullying law. Colleague JoAnn Watson said: “It doesn’t sound like bullying. It sounds like extortion.”

Time's up: Detroit's running out of cash. Photo by Terry Hall

Bing wants the council to move forward with the consent agreement in good faith, and resolve problems with the city Charter later, because “there is no Plan B.”

Council President Charles Pugh said he found the public meeting on the consent agreement and the lawsuit altogether irresponsible. He scolded the mayor for using “the sky is falling” tactics.

-- Terry Hall

Update: June 13: Crittendon’s suit was dismissed in Michigan Circuit Court in Ingham County. Judge William Collette ruled that only the mayor or city council can decide to sue; the city attorney has no autonomous authority to file suits, let alone challenge the mayor in court. He said the city council should have passed a resolution declaring the consent agreement invalid; since it did not, the agreement will stand. –ed.

Occupy Detroit’s first march

 Personal stories  No Responses »
May 052012
 

Mike Shallal, leading the way on the first day. Photo by Terry Hall

It was October 14, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street movement was growing and starting to capture attention. I was inspired by the mainstream media coverage: finally, people standing up to the unrestrained greed of Wall Street. I started following the news stories, and I learned about the birth of the Occupy Detroit movement on Facebook. I knew that the public outrage over the greed of the 1% wasn’t going to reach a dead end at Wall Street. It was headed for Woodward Avenue as well.

The opportunity to photograph the first march from Hart Plaza to Grand Circus Park was compelling, but that’s not why I decided to go. As a child, I’d watched protests on my parents’ black and white TV, but I wasn’t old enough to comprehend their meaning. As I grew up, I watched the fall of the middle class even as I struggled to “do better than my parents.” I experienced the devastating effects of so-called “trickle down” economics, recession, underemployment, and reduced access to health care coverage — to name just a few. Corporations were getting richer; I was getting poorer.

So I rushed home from work to meet my fiancé, and we were quickly off to downtown Detroit. I was excited as we walked from the parking lot up to Hart Plaza,  and even more so when I saw masses of people carrying protest signs and shouting loudly.

I began taking photos of police, people, protestors, and the messages emblazoned across protest signs. As the crowd formed to prepare for the march to Grand Circus Park, a young man with a megaphone began leading chants. I put the camera to my eye and zoomed in to frame the moment. The megaphone came up to his face. He shouted into the grey horn and threw a fist of rebellion into the air. Click, I hit the shutter, but I didn’t think much about it.

When I finally got home, I quickly uploaded the photos onto my computer. I noticed the shot of the young man with the megaphone, and I immediately went to it. I made a few adjustments and converted it to black and white. A few more minor tweaks, and there it was, the photo that, for me, captured the call to the 99%. Ever since, I’ve been photographing the Occupy Detroit movement and constantly learning how to hone my skills as a photojournalist.

On the days that I’m not so happy with my work, I look at this photograph. I’m sure it’s not going to win a Pulitzer Prize, but it’s Pulitzer material to me.

If photography, writing or video has captured your attention as a result of the Occupy movement, the Occupied Detroit Free Press is for you. Please share your passion in this forum of free expression.

Peace,

Terry F. Hall
Citizen Photojournalist for the 99%