AFSCME
Local 207, the union which sparked the strike launched by Detroit water
department workers, has issued a bitter, scathing newsletter to its members
that says “arrogant white people” are attempting to take control of city
government.
The
Local 207 bulletin, which lists no authors but is intended as a joint statement
from the leadership, sets the tone in the first sentence: “Day Three of the
strike really sucked.”
The
union leaders urge workers to defy federal Judge Sean Cox and Detroit Mayor
Dave Bing in their effort to fire the 34 workers who led the initial walkout on
Sunday. In a militant tone reminiscent of the labor battles of the 1950s and
1960s, they urge more of the rank-and-file to join the picket line at the
wastewater plant.
These
Local 207 representatives chastise the city for putting thuggish police officers at the
picket line to keep order, and they slam the AFSCME leadership at the Council
25 level who "lied to us and are betraying us now, and so never can be trusted
in the future to have our backs.”
The
lengthy message in the bulletin urges the membership, which faces mass layoffs,
to recruit bus drivers, mechanics, clerical workers, high school students,
college students, church members and senior citizens to join the water workers’
crusade.
“We have to leaflet and urge every city worker in Detroit to go out on
strike and join this fight to save our city and to save our lives,” the
bulletin said.
Then
the union leaders added this:
“Almost
everyone in Detroit despises Mayor Bing, resents and hates Judge Cox and all
the other arrogant white people who think that they have the right to control
Detroit and destroy so many people’s lives. What the people of Detroit lack are
leaders. A few generations have passed since standing up and fighting as a
union or as a community was the norm. And virtually every leader that we have
encountered in our lifetimes has been cynical, corrupt, self-serving,
dishonest, and disappointing.”
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