Commemorate the historic Walk to Freedom on Saturday and march for justice

Saturday will be a great day for those who love freedom and equality, and there will be at least two ways to demonstrate it.

The Michigan Democratic Party is holding its nominating convention on Saturday and Sunday in Detroit’s Cobo Hall, but many delegates, myself included, are going to take a break from the informative caucus meetings to join Rev. Jessie Jackson and a coalition of organizations and union, community, religious and political leaders to march to demand real change for working families and all of America and to commemorate the historic Walk to Freedom led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Detroit in 1963.

The march will step off at 10:30 a.m. at the UAW-Ford National Programs Center, next to Hart Plaza, 151 W. Jefferson Ave., and it ends at Grand Circus Park.

Dr. King was a long and strong supporter of organized labor, and he saw the rights of workers as part of the fight for Civil Rights.

According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) archivist Bob Garrett, the Detroit march took place when Dr. King was then in the midst of a tour that began that spring of 1963 from California to New York. His Detroit stop proved the tour's biggest success. Police estimated the Freedom Walk crowd at 125,000. The day after the event, The Detroit Free Press labeled it "the largest civil rights demonstration in the nation's history." The walk began at Woodward and Adelaide and continued down Woodward to Cobo Hall. It lasted about an hour and a half, as marchers carried signs and sang songs, such "We Shall Overcome" and "The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

The Detroit Council for Human Rights organized the Walk. The Council's director, Benjamin McFall, and its Chairman, Rev. Clarence L. Franklin, marched in a line with King and former Gov. John B. Swainson. That line also included Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, United Auto Workers President Walter P. Reuther and State Auditor General Billie S. Farnum.

At the walk's conclusion, King gave a speech at Cobo Hall. According to the Free Press, approximately 25,000 people attended the speech. They listened as King spoke of non-violence and an end to racial segregation. The June 24, 1963 Free Press report notes that King "ended his speech by telling of a dream." According to the Free Press, King described his dream of whites and blacks "walking together hand in hand, free at last."

In his book King: A Biography, David Levering Lewis states that King repeated the phrase "I have a dream" several times during that Cobo Hall speech. Lewis notes that when King addressed a crowd in Washington, D.C. two months later, he "kept the refrain from the Detroit speech: I have a dream."

Saturday will also mark the day of King's historic Washington speech of August 28, 1963 that became famous as his "I have a dream speech." It was a defining moment in the American civil rights movement. In one sense, however, the seeds of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream were planted in Michigan - in Detroit's Cobo Hall.

See you there.

Wear a white shirt on Wednesday and celebrate the end of the Flint Sit-Down Strike and the creation of the middle class

People all over Michigan and the nation will be wearing white shirts on Wednesday to mark an anniversary of a courageous and historic day that helped create the middle class and raised the standard of living of all U.S. workers.

White Shirt Day celebrates the historic 1937 sit-down strike at General Motor's production complex in Flint that led to the United Auto Workers (UAW) recognition as the sole bargaining agent for GM workers and led to the unionization of the United States automobile industry and helped create the middle class.

The strike began On December 30, 1936 when workers took control and occupied the plant. The workers fought off tear gas and an assault by police to retake the plant, and the parties finally reached agreement on February 11, 1937 that recognized the UAW as the exclusive bargaining representative for GM's employees.

White Shirt Day was first celebrated on Feb. 11, 1948 as a way to honor the men and women who participated in the 1937 sit-down strike. White shirts are worn to work on the anniversary of the end of the strike. This action was intended to send a message to management that "blue collar" workers had earned the right to the same respect as their management counterparts, according to Region 1C of the UAW.

Another tactic to kill middle class set to be launched

Michigan Republicans continue their war on the middle class with its continued push for so-called “Right-to-Work” laws.

Word in Lansing is that Republican Senator Nancy Cassis is set to introduce a bill to establish so called “Right to Work” zones. Republicans have failed to pass a state wide right to work for less law, and a threatened ballot initiative has also failed to materialize. This seems a scaled down assault on the middle and working class that has been ongoing for more than 50 years.

Wizardkitten over at Blogging for Michigan has an excellent take on “right to work for less zones,” and they are similar to tax-advantaged enterprise zones. These laws are meant to simply kill labor unions, roll back workplace protections and depress wages.

RTW bills are before both the Michigan House and Senate, but they continue to remain stuck in committee. In the House, Rep. Jacob Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, introduced House Bill 4454, and Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, introduced HB 4455, both to make Michigan an RTW state. In the Senate, Cassis introduced companion bills, Senate Bills 607 and 608.

Proponents of RTW claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don't want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTW would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union.

Unions in RTW states are required by law to defend non-dues-paying members involved in a dispute or charged with a grievance at work, but even those employees do not have to contribute dues. Opponents of RTW say such a provision does not give workers more rights, but instead it weakens unions and their ability to bargain for improved benefits and working conditions, which they call the real intent of RTW. The union, by law, must represent all workers equally.

Workers in RTW states make an average of $5,900 less in annual salary, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In addition, the rate of workplace deaths is 41 percent higher in RTW states, according to the bureau, and 20 percent more workers in RTW states go without health insurance.

A bit of history: Michigan's only labor museum taking shape

MONROE -- Michigan has a long and rich history of organized labor, but that history is being lost as labor union membership falls off and some smaller unions fold.

Bill Conner, the president of the Monroe County Council CIO Social and Welfare Association, is putting his labor, sweat and money into preserving that history with the restoration and improvement of the only labor museum in the state. Since 2001 the association has been planning to turn the historic Phillip Murray Building in downtown Monroe into the Monroe County Labor History Museum, and in February of last year after lots of work it opened for business.

Conner is also the curator of the museum, housed in a two-story brick building that was built in 1912, and Conner, who was born and raised in Monroe, is a walking encyclopedia of labor history in the area. He said the building had been used off and on for a union meeting hall for a number of years before it was owned by the association. In 1935 some eight unions that represented production and factory workers within the American Federation of Labor – that consisted primarily of skilled trades -- split to form the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Monroe once had numerous paper factories, and those workers were represented by the CIO. At their peak the unions in the CIO represented more than 6,000 paper mill workers.

“It was not uncommon in those days for the kids to come into the plants and bring their father their lunch or dinner,” Conner said. “They ran 24-seven, and if their relief did not show up, they worked for 16 hours.”

On Feb. 5, 1946, the CIO purchased the building after making a down payment by assessing each member a one-time fee of $12.75. In 1953 the building was dedicated to Philip Murray, the first president of the United Steelworkers of America, following his death in 1952.

Over the years, the building fell into disrepair, and the first floor was divided into two buildings with a marriage wall with a separate entrance; the west side of the building was leased to a social club. Three years ago the association began a fund-raising effort to raise $1.5 million for the renovations, and the association took over the entire building.

“We are asking the labor unions in the area to make a financial commitment over a period of years,” Conner said. “In a perfect world we would like to raise the money in three years.”

Renovations began in the west-side, first-floor portion of the hall, and the renovations revealed a beautiful wood floor and a ceiling that resembles the impressive, decorative ceiling in the state Capitol.

“Once we got in here and started the renovations, we realized what a gem we had,” Conner said. “We have been doing a lot of renovations, and we have made some great discoveries.”

The first display opened for visitors last February in the west side of the building, and the museum used a grant from the Michigan Council of Humanities to create a display called “The Eyes of the Nation Were on Monroe” to mark the bitter and violent attempt by the CIO to organize the Republic Steel plant in Monroe in 1935. Some 100 strikers were met by an armed posse deputized by the mayor of Monroe and the Michigan National Guard. The display features 20 displays, each 24 by72 feet, that are lightweight and can easily be moved for a traveling display, as well as easy storage to make way for new displays.

The museum has even received some corporate help from companies like Consumers Power, but the biggest help has been from in-kind donations from the building trade unions in sweat equity.

“They are giving us a lot of help,” Conner said. “The money we raise goes toward material, and we take advantage of the free labor. It will be a great showcase for them.”

Much of the expense will be to make the building compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Plans are to knock out an entrance between the two halves of the building on the first floor. An elevator will be built in the back of the first floor in the east side of the building, and ADA restrooms will be built on the first floor. A large office on the first floor of the east side of the building will be turned into a hands-on display for elementary school students.

“We are really aiming at kids in the fourth and fifth grades, and we have also gone into the schools to bring the history of labor to them,” Connor said. “We need to teach a new generation to understand that the standard of living we all enjoy came on the backs of organized labor.”

The second floor is still used as a meeting hall for union and community groups, and that will continue. However, there are plans to build five small offices in the rear of the hall on the second floor that will be rented out to union locals that will help pay for upkeep of the building. Conner has lined the walls of the second floor with the framed charters of defunct union locals he has found during the renovations.

“When they went out of business, the charter was pulled of the wall and chucked in an office,” he said.

Conner said the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University is also working on some permanent displays for the walls that will highlight organized labor’s accomplishments, like the eight-hour workweek, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)and the Social Security Act.

The museum is free and open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.To make a donation of memorabilia or artifacts contact Conner at lwconnerjr@mail.com. To make a monetary contribution to the renovation fund contact Robert Hoffman at reh453@hotmail.com.

Labor ready to fight Right to Work, but enemy may be hard to find

Organized labor in Michigan is busy gearing up for what it believes is the first battle in the push by conservatives to make Michigan a so-called Right to Work (RTW) state, but organized labor may not have anyone to fight in the initial round.

For months there have been rumors of a push by conservative groups and individuals from out of state to make Michigan a RTW state by collecting signatures for a citizen initiative. Proponents of RTW claim the law would do away with the requirement that workers must be in a union to be employed at a union shop. However, federal law already protects workers who don't want to join a union to get or keep their jobs, and the law gives workers the right to opt out of a union. But they must still pay union dues. RTW would give them the option of not paying dues while still enjoying the benefits of being in a union.

RTW bills are before both the Michigan House and Senate, but are stuck in committee. In the House, Rep. Jacob Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, introduced Bill 4454, and Rep. Kevin Elsenheimer, R-Bellaire, introduced Bill 4455, both to make Michigan a RTW state. In the Senate, Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, introduced companion bills, 607 and 608. Union officials say they are hearing that petitions will be circulated to make RTW a ballot initiative, and organizers of the petitions will use the Jan. 15 Michigan Presidential Primary to collect the signatures. But union officials say no organized effort has stepped up to lead that effort, and there appears to be some concern among those pushing RTW that the high turnout expected in the 2008 General Election may hurt the cause because Michigan has such a high union membership that can be mobilized to vote.

“The latest info I have is there will be no signatures gathered at the polls here,” said Paul Hufnagel, the president of the Greater Lansing Labor Council.

To start a citizen initiative, supporters of RTW only have to collect the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 8 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election. That comes out to 304,101 valid signatures of registered voters. Once the petition signatures are verified, the state Legislature has 40 session days to adopt or reject the proposal, and if it is rejected it is placed on the ballot for the next general election.

But although labor is not sure that signatures will be gathered during the primary, leaders are not conceding the point, and in case RTW supporters do mount a petition drive, labor is actively recruiting people to be at the polling stations where signatures will be collected and give the other side of the issue and ask voters to decline to sign. The plan is to have at least one person at each of 2,500 polling places across the state during the time the polls are open in two shifts. Training sessions are being held for those volunteers signed up right up until the polls open.

“The Michigan Republican Party may have placed this on the back burner, but it is still out there,” Hufnagel said.

Labor leaders say that even if there are no signature gathers at the polls this time around, the issue is not going away any time soon, and those pushing RTW see Michigan, as the home of the United Auto Workers (UAW), as a chance for a symbolic victory.

“(Senate Majority Leader) Mike Bishop has said his number one priority is right to work, but he knows he does not have the support in the Legislature,” Hufnagel said. “We could see the domino effect; as Michigan goes, so goes the rest of the country.”

Labor leaders say even if there are no signature gathers at the polls this time around, the issue is not going away any time soon, and those pushing RTW see Michigan, as the home of the United Auto Workers (UAW), as a symbolic victory.

“(Senate Majority Leader) Mike Bishop has said his number one priority is right to work, but he knows he does not have the support in the legislature,” Hufnagel said. “We could see the domino effect; as Michigan goes, so goes the rest of the country.”