Workers Rally For "Common Sense Solutions"
DETROIT (WWJ) - Union workers rallied outside Cadillac Place in Detroit, Monday, hoping Michigan Governor Rick Snyder would hear their call for "common sense solutions" to the need for state cuts.
Carrying signed, some of which read "Collective Bargaining is a Human Right," and "Good Jobs for Michigan, Not Slave Labor," more than 100 people shouted slogans, including Ray Holman, legislative liaison for UAW Local 6000.
"We do not have enough front line staff or foot line soldiers. We have too many managers," he said. "And if you're looking at all the private contractors, if you cut these vendors by just 10 percent, you could save the State of Michigan over $100 million," Holman said.
Speaking to the crowd gathered outside the State of Michigan building, State Representative Betty Cook Scott said she is concerned about what she said appears to be a "divide and conquer" mentality when it comes to union contracts.
She's especially concerned about a police union contract which stops new employees from getting a pension.
"Police and Fire do not pay into Social Security, so they will not have the added advantage of having Social Security," Cook said.
"If they mismanage their money for 25 years and they decide to leave the department because they're old or they can't run, they can't jump, they have no safety net," she said.
Organizers of the rally say the Snyder administration ispushing for an additional $145 million in concessions from state employees to help pay for a $2 billion tax break to wealthy corporations that outsource jobs.
