UAW members rally in defense of middle class

Thousands gather in Michigan Photo credit: Sue Kramer

UAW members from Michigan joined with thousands of members from other unions and a broad coalition of students, seniors and workers at the state Capitol in Lansing Wednesday for a massive demonstration against Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget plan and other anti-middle class bills pending in the Republican-controlled legislature.  

At one point police estimated the crowd to be between 5,000 and 6,000, but teachers and others came in later in the day after getting off work, leading We Are the People, the rally’s organizers to estimate a total of around 10,000 protesters.  

The governor’s budget proposal cuts almost $800 million from K-12 and higher education, eliminates the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families and creates a new tax on seniors’ pensions to pay for a $1.8 billion tax break for corporations. 

Many rally goers also visited their representative and senator to express their displeasure with the new “Emergency Managers” law, which gives the governor’s appointed officials broad powers to scrap collective bargaining contracts and remove local elected school boards and city councils, and the lawmakers’ recent decision to cut unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 20 weeks.  

The “middle-class lobbyists” also told their representatives their priority should be creating jobs to stimulate the economy instead of attacking hardworking people, poor families and seniors to pay for more tax giveaways to big business. Mark Harris, a 42-year-old plastic injection molder with Local 503 at automotive supplier IAC in Mendon, Mich., says those attacks should be fought. "This legislation is wrong. Republicans are attacking not only unions but the middle class so they can line their pockets at the expense of working people,” said Harris. “They're doing it by busting the unions and taking away the middle class. Unions not only make a good standard of living for members but for all workers in the area. Unions give back to communities." 

Local 372 retiree Beverly Brown couldn’t agree more. "Republicans are saying laborers are no good. Well, they're forgetting that Jesus Christ was a carpenter," said the 58-year-old former worker at Chrysler Engine plant in Trenton, Mich. “Once we were able to retire we wanted to enjoy it, not worry about whether we're going to have to go to a soup kitchen to eat." 

Local 651 retiree Henry Royster says workers need to speak out like those at the demonstration. "Rallying today is part of the answer. We need to let them know that we're not going to lay down,” said the 63-year-old former jobsetter, truck driver and product handler at GM-AC Spark Plug in Flint, Mich. “If we do nothing, they'll do anything they want to us. We have to make a stand and let them know that seniors and the working class are not going to stand for this." 

Local 594 retiree Dennis Przedmojski says Snyder’s plan to balance the budget on the backs of Michigan public workers is devastating to the state, including people he knows personally. The 64-year-old retired electrician from GM Truck and Bus in Pontiac, Mich., says this is more than going after workers; it’s targeting the very foundation of a civil society. "Republicans are attacking just about everything in government. No one is immune from what Governor Snyder is trying to do,” said Przedmojski.  “I have a daughter who is a teacher; they're attacking teachers. I have friends in the medical field; they're attacking nurses. It almost seems anti-American."   

Governor Snyder says we should just 'get over it.' People are not going to 'get over it.' That's why we're here today."  

State-specific and national studies have shown that, contrary to the Republicans’ rhetoric, corporate tax breaks seldom lead to job creation. "There is no guarantee that Gov. Rick Snyder's tax plan would translate into job increases,” said Michigan House Fiscal Agency Director Mitch Bean. "The idea that somehow this business tax would automatically create jobs in Michigan is nonsense."