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Union and community members from across Michigan massed at the state capitol in Lansing April 13 of last year to oppose passage of PA4
By Diane Bukowski
February 21, 2011
Al Garrett, President Michigan AFSCME Council 25
DETROIT – Michigan AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett says there is now hope on the horizon for the state’s beleaguered cities, particularly Detroit and other majority-Black cities facing Public Act 4 takeovers.
“Roughly 210,000 petition signatures for a referendum to repeal Public Act 4 in this November’s election have been collected so far,” Garrett told VOD. “We will be delivering the petitions to the state board of canvassers in Lansing February 29.”
Volunteers are feverishly meeting at AFSCME halls across the state to verify the petition signatures before they are submitted, Garrett said. A total of 161,000 certified signatures is necessary to place the issue on the ballot.
“This shows the citizens of Michigan are willing to stand up and fight to maintain Michigan as a state with democracy,” Garrett said. “It was nothing but sweat equity that went into the collection of these petition signatures. We paid no one to collect them. Our AFSCME halls across the state from its southern to its northernmost boundaries have been focal points for the campaign. We are quite satisfied with the massive response.”
Youth join city workers rally Aug. 20, 2009
Garrett said Stand Up For Democracy and AFSCME Council 25, which has 60,000 members across the state, plan to turn the petitions in 30 days ahead of the deadline to get the referendum on the ballot. According to the State Constitution, once the state board of canvassers certifies the petitions, Public Act 4 will be frozen. Michigan Attorney General Rick Schuette said earlier that he has not decided whether PA 4’s predecessor, Public Act 72, would be restored.
Some experts have said that PA 72 no longer exists and cannot be put back in the state’s law books. This could mean a host of developments.
Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette
First of call, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette has already ruled that everything done by Detroit’s emergency review teams, appointed Dec. 1 and Dec. 21, by Governor Synder, is null and void because they violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by meeting in secret.
He also ruled that Highland Park schools’ emergency manager Jack Martin must step down because his appointment was likewise based on secret meetings.
Garrett said the lawsuit contending that EM review teams must be subject to the Open Meetings Act originated in AFSCME Council 25’s offices. It was filed in the name of AFSCME organizer and Highland Park school board member Robert Davis.
Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, first victim of PA 4, leads march last year
Secondly, with possibly both PA 4 and PA 72 off the books at least until November of this year, it is likely that the appointments of other emergency managers under PA4 may also be invalidated, in Benton Harbor, Detroit School District, Flint, Inkster school district, Muskegon Heights school district, and Pontiac, where the current EM has put all the city’s assets on the auction block.
“It pretty much says to our folks that we don’t have to be victims,” Garrett said. “If we are willing to stand up and fight, we can win. This whole campaign has given our membership more resolve. Even though we have yet to hear from President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder about violations of the National Voting Rights Act under PA 4, the people have spoken, and they will be heard.”
Gov. Rick Snyder earlier told U.S. Rep. John Conyers and others in a meeting that he planned to mount a legal challenge to the PA4 referendum. Garrett said that attorneys from both AFSCME Council 25 and elsewhere are preparing to fight any challenge. That is why the petitions are being turned in 30 days earlier, to permit time for legal maneuvers.
Garrett said Council 25 has amassed a large database from the PA4 drive, which will be used in an upcoming campaign for a Michigan constitutional amendment to guarantee the right of workers and unions to collective bargaining. (See Labor Notes story below).
For further information, go to http://laborweb.afscme.org/sites/MI_C_25/index,cfm, Contact information for the organizers is available in the postings at the beginning of this article.
For a recap of developments so far in the EM war on Detroit and the state’s other majority Black cities is available in the Final Call article by this author, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/2012/02/20/final-call-michigan-gov-accused-of-disenfranchising-detroit-other-majority-black-cities-in-the-state/.
