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Up to 30,000 Wisconsin workers have packed streets outside state capitol since Feb. 15 to stop union-busting, pension attacks; teachers and students have walked out of class

Senate vote to end collective bargaining for most state workers delayed by opposition

Wis. union vote on hold after Democrats leave state

MSNBC.COM

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin state Senate Democrats boycotting a vote to curb the union rights of public employees left the state on Thursday while 25,000 critics of the bill marched on the state Capitol. At least nine protesters were arrested.

1. 1.   What’s at stake in Wisconsin

What bill would do
1) Eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public workers. So while unions still could represent those workers, they would not be able to seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum.

2) Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

3) Local police, firefighters and state troopers would retain their collective bargaining rights.

4) Public workers would have to pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage. That represents an average of 8 percent increase in state employees’ share of pension and health care costs.

Workers have occupied State Capitol building, sleeping over every night in Rotunda

In exchange, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Gov. Scott Walker has threatened to lay off up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

Estimated savings
$30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

Background
The proposal marks a dramatic shift for Wisconsin, which in 1959 was the first to pass a comprehensive collective bargaining law for public employees and was the birthplace of the national union representing all non-federal public employees.

Workers remain outside state capitol; Cairo in Wisconsin

When voters last year elected Gov. Walker, an outspoken conservative, along with GOP majorities in both legislative chambers, it set the stage for a dramatic reversal of the state’s labor history.

National significance
New Republican governors and legislatures in other states have proposed cutting back on public employee costs to reduce budget shortfalls, but Wisconsin’s move appears to be the earliest and most extensive.

Source: Associated Press and Reuters

As ever-growing throngs of protesters filled the Capitol for a third day, the 14 Democrats disappeared around midday, just as the Senate was about to begin debating the measure, which would eliminate collective bargaining for most public employees.

They were not in their offices, and aides said they did not know where any of them had gone. Hours later, one member of the group told The Associated Press that they had all left Wisconsin.

Wisconsin firefighters join protest even though they are exempt from union-busting attack

“The plan is to try and slow this down because it’s an extreme piece of legislation that’s tearing this state apart,” Sen. Jon Erpenbach said in a telephone interview.

He refused to say where he was, but WTMJ later reported that they had fled to a hotel in Rockford, Ill.

Democrats hoped Republican Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers would consider revisions to the bill.

Walker, who took office just last month, called on Democrats to return out of respect for the democratic process and the institution of the Legislature.

“Their actions by leaving the state and hiding from voting are disrespectful to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who showed up to work today and the millions of taxpayers they represent,” Walker said.

Republicans hold a 19-14 majority in the Senate, but they need at least one Democrat to be present before voting on the bill.

Other lawmakers who fled sent messages over Twitter and issued written statements, but did not disclose their location. Erpenbach said they planned to gather in the same place later Thursday.

The People vs. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

In response to a question of where she was, Sen. Lena Taylor sent a tweet saying she was “doing the people’s business. Power to the PEOPLE.”

As Republicans tried to begin Senate business Thursday, observers in the gallery screamed “Freedom! Democracy! Unions!” Opponents cheered when a legislative leader announced there were not enough senators present to proceed.

The sergeant-at-arms immediately began looking for the missing lawmakers. If he cannot find them, he’s authorized to seek help, including potentially contacting police.

Senate rules and the state constitution say absent members can be compelled to appear, but it does not say how.

Madison East High School students walk out to support their teachers

“Today they checked out, and I’m not sure where they’re at,” Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said. “This is the ultimate shutdown, what we’re seeing today.”

STUDENTS WALK OUT TO SUPPORT THEIR TEACHERS; WATCH VIDEO AT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPLCFDFWRBk&feature=player_embedded

Elsewhere in the Statehouse, Democrats showed up in the state Assembly chamber wearing orange T-shirts that proclaimed their support for working families.

After a routine roll call, Democrats who were leaving the chamber exchanged high-fives with protesters, who cried “thank you” as they walked by. The protesters unleashed venomous boos and screams at Republicans.

Thursday’s events were reminiscent of a 2003 dispute in Texas, where Democrats twice fled the state to prevent adoption of a redistricting bill designed to give Republicans more seats in Congress. The bill passed a few months later.

The drama in Wisconsin unfolded in a jam-packed Capitol. Madison police and the State Department of Public Instruction estimated the crowd at 25,000 protesters, the largest number yet.

NO MORE WALKER!

Demonstrators stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the building’s hallways, sat cross-legged across the floor and made it difficult to move from room to room.

Protesters clogged the hallway outside the Senate chamber beating on drums, holding signs deriding Walker and pleading for lawmakers to kill the bill. Some others even demonstrated outside the lawmakers’ homes.

Hundreds of teachers called in sick, forcing a number of school districts to cancel classes. Madison schools, the state’s second-largest district, with 24,000 students, closed for a second day.

Thousands more people, many of them students from the nearby University of Wisconsin, slept in the rotunda for a second night.

“We are all willing to come to the table, we’ve have all been willing from day one,” said Madison teacher Rita Miller. “But you can’t take A, B, C, D and everything we’ve worked for in one fell swoop.”

In addition to eliminating collective-bargaining rights, the legislation also would make public workers pay half the costs of their pensions and at least 12.6 percent of their health care coverage. Their share of pension and health care costs would go up by an average of 8 percent — increases Walker calls “modest” compared with those in the private sector.

Republican leaders said they expected Wisconsin residents would be pleased with the savings the bill would achieve — $30 million by July 1 and $300 million over the next two years to address a $3.6 billion budget shortfall.

“I think the taxpayers will support this idea,” Fitzgerald said.

Unions still could represent workers, but could not seek pay increases above those pegged to the Consumer Price Index unless approved by a public referendum. Unions also could not force employees to pay dues and would have to hold annual votes to stay organized.

In exchange for bearing more costs and losing bargaining leverage, public employees were promised no furloughs or layoffs. Walker has threatened to order layoffs of up to 6,000 state workers if the measure does not pass.

“We are all willing to come to the table, we’ve have all been willing from day one,” said Madison teacher Rita Miller. “But you can’t take A, B, C, D and everything we’ve worked for in one fell swoop.”

Detroit community leaders come together Feb. 16 to plan fightback

Legislature proposes sweeping powers for EFM’s, to pay off debt to banks

Breaking news: go to http://www.freep.com/article/20110131/NEWS15/110131028/State-tries-head-off-city-school-district-bankruptcies?odyssey=obinsite to read Free Press report that Gov. Snyder’s aide Andy Dillon is busy “training” 45 emergency financial managers with the expectation that they will be needed soon. Dillon said at least three to four cities are on the brink of receivership, but would not name them. 

According to a press release received by the VOD, Robert Bobb participated in a training session for EFM’s held Feb. 10, at the Henry Center for Executive Development at Michigan State University, 3535 Forest Road, Lansing. The release came from the Truscott Rossman Group, headed by former Governor John Engler’s press secretary and top aid John Truscott and newly founded on Dec. 22, 201o.

By Diane Bukowski 

LANSING and DETROIT, Feb. 16—“When are people going to wake up and realize we are in a class war?” asked Cecily McClellan, Vice-President of the city of Detroit’s Association of Professional and Technical Employees (APTE). “Our government now is nothing but a corporatocracy and it is in a full frontal attack against us.”

She and a dozen others gathered at the Spirit of Detroit statue outside the Coleman A. Young Center Feb. 16 to plan a fightback against multiple attacks on Detroit, including its water department.

Thousands mass in Wisconsin State Capitol Building Feb. 15 to stop war on workers and poor

Mike Mulholland, secretary-treasurer of AFSCME Local 207, representing Detroit Water Department workers, said, “We need to do what they are doing in Wisconsin. The teachers and students in Wisconsin have shut down the schools in response to the governor’s attacks. We do have the power and we can win.”

On Feb. 15, over 30,000 Wisconsin protesters took over the state capitol building, sleeping overnight in the rotunda.

Richard Hairston, a WHPR-TV commentator said, “This is Detroit’s Egyptian moment.”

Tina Person is interviewed by Channel 2's Amy Lange Feb. 16

Tina Person, also known as the Eastside Lady, said, “The bus drivers have said they will shut the buses down. We need to shut the whole city down, instead of Detroit 300 recruiting people to go out in the neighborhoods and attack people and send more of us to prison.”

Meanwhile, others from across the state journeyed to Lansing to testify at a hearing of the House Local, Intergovernmental and Regional Affairs Committee on House Bills 4124 through 4218. (Go to HB4214finanacialmanager2102011[1]   to read lead bill).

While fightbacks across the Middle East, Africa and now Wisconsin are taking place, the Michigan Legislature is fast-tracking a bill that could abolish all constitutional and charter rights of local governments and school districts. It would instead give sweeping powers to Emergency Financial Managers (EFM’s) like Robert Bobb, while completely disenfranchising residents. (See summary of H.B. 4124 below. Go to HB4214finanacialmanager2102011[1] to read entire lead bill.)

State Rep. Al Pscholka (R-Stevensville, Berrien County)

State Rep. Al Pscholka, (R-Stevensville), introduced the bills Feb. 9.  Committee Chair Ouimet (R-Scio Township) set them up for a hearing in record time with virtually no notice, and would not postpone discussion of amendments for one week as requested by State Rep. Woodrow Stanley (D-Flint).  Meanwhile, three bills sponsored by State Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit) that would limit EFM powers languish without a hearing. (Go to  HB-4176-2011[1], HB-4177-2011[1], HB-4178-2011[1]   to read those bills.)

Pscholka is a first-time legislator from Berrien County, former vice-president of the Cornerstone Alliance, a pro-privatization foundation, and former secretary to the Southwest Michigan Regional Sanitary Sewer and Water Authority.

He clearly has broad support from Republicans in the legislature and likely from Governor Rick Snyder, who was expected to announce sweeping cuts directed at working and poor Michiganders, including cities and school districts, in his budget address Feb. 17.

Over 50 people from Detroit, Flint, Pontiac and even wealthy Oakland County testified against Pscholka’s legislation Feb. 16. No one testified for it, although several politicians from Wayne County and Flint tried to turn the bills to their advantage.

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson

Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson was the only Detroit City Council member to make the trip. Mayor Dave Bing did not show his face. He has said he and Snyder are “joined at the hip.”

“I urge the committee to vote down these bills that would harm the city of Detroit, and not subject citizens across Michigan to emergency control managers who are business persons not elected by people we represent,” Watson said.

She blasted the state of Michigan for causing Detroit’s financial problems in large part by legislation that phased down the city’s income tax while promising to increase state revenue sharing. The state never held up its end of the bargain, paying increased payments in only two years from 1999 to  2007.

Snyder, meanwhile, is proposing to cut state revenue-sharing payments to cities by 33 percent according to published reports.

“The state owes Detroit over $322 million in revenue sharing funds,” Watson said. “We would not be in a deficit and subject to receivership under this legislation if Michigan had paid its bill.”

Debra Taylor testifies at committee hearing in Lansing Feb. 16

Debra Taylor of the Southeast Detroit Citizens District Council said, “These bills violate our fundamental right to govern ourselves. This is taxation without representation. They are a direct attack on African-Americans and other people of color, and all low income people. Detroit, Pontiac, Benton Harbor, Flint, we are targeted first.  Slavery was legal but it wasn’t right. Hundreds of schools have been closed by our EFM. People are feeling repressed and relating to Egypt. What you’re doing is not democratic or fair.”

State Rep. Shanelle Jackson (D-Detroit), told the committee, “We watched the fall of Mubarak, and the U.S. and nations around the world have said they stand with people of Egypt in their quest for democracy.  Today, I’m asking you to stand with the people of Michigan. These bills are a slap in the face of every voter who elected you.”

Monica Patrick testifies in Lansing Feb. 16

Detroit parent and business owner Monica Patrick said, “I am outraged that these bills are on the table. I am not only a citizen of city of Detroit, but of Michigan and the United States. It is appalling that anyone would think of stripping us of our right to vote while we tout democracy around the world. It is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. I will fight this action with every ounce of my being.”

Officials from school districts and governments currently under state control testified strongly against the bill.

“In 1999, the district did not have a deficit but the state took us over and brought the debt in,” said Detroit School Board member Annie Carter. “In 2008, Detroiters voted to have the state forgive the debt they caused, but that did not happen. When you give control to one czar, you create corruption. My child’s school has gone eight days with no heat because Bobb laid the boiler operators off and Sodexo will not have anyone in place for 30 days. Our children are being educated in the cold and then going home to the cold because their parents cannot afford utility bills. Teachers are being moved in the middle of the semester, and as a result students are not being educated.”

DPS Board Member Annie Carter

Detroit School Board member Terry Catchings called the bills “totally, clearly unconstitutional.”

“I have been on the board for three years, with the last two under the control of the EFM. Since he took over, there is no accountability and no oversight. Our budget deficit went up over $200 million in two years. Confusion, waste, fraud and abuse abound.  These bills will harm not just Detroit but other districts in deficit also.”

Forty-one school districts across the state are in deficit.

 “Our entire educational system is in an abysmal state,” Detroit parent Sharon Kelso said. “There is complete degradation and disregard of parents, students and staff, Bobb has all but destroyed the public education system. My child hasn’t learned jack in the last two years.”

State Rep. David Nathan testifies at earlier hearing Feb. 9 in Lansing

Rep. David Nathan (D-Detroit) said. “I sat on the education committee during my first term. Academics from the University of Detroit Mercy, Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan all concluded that an emergency financial manager doesn’t necessarily have the expertise to deal with academics.”

Nathan said the former EFM for Pontiac was removed and lost lawsuits on decisions he had made because there was no oversight.

“These bills will affect more cities and schools in our state than we can ever imagine,” Nathan said. “There are pension systems that could be affected by this. I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of aisle to think about the people that elected you and things that could be affected.”

Pontiac City Council President Lee A. Jones

Pontiac Councilman Kermit Williams

The City of Pontiac has been under state receivership since March, 2009. A second EFM is in control after the first was ousted due to successful lawsuits over his illegal actions. Pontiac’s City Council President Lee Jones, and members George Williams, Kerwin Williams, and Patrice Waterman all testified before the committee.

“How many of you on this committee live under an EFM,” President Jones asked. “Our constitutional rights have been violated. There has been union-busting, a total dictatorship. The EFM shut down city council meetings, silencing the voice of the people as his first order of business, but then two days later he had to put them back.”

The council members said the EFM has caused substantial revenue losses to the city. He sold the Silverdome for $500,000, although $7 million was allocated. He privatized Pontiac’s wastewater treatment plant, sold the golf course, and carried out massive lay-offs and cuts, said the council members. They said the EFM has laid of the entire police force, allocating funds for the Oakland County Sheriffs instead.

Jones said the EFM let a contract to a non-Michigan based company and commented, “They done worked for me in the past, I done it, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

He said he sent letters to the EFM protesting lay-offs and was referred to the law firm of Plunkett and Cooney, which told him he was interfering with the powers of the EFM.

“If I pick up phone and contact a law firm, the first thing they do is start billing, and that’s something we can’t afford,” Jones said. “EFM’s are for money to law firms, their friends and themselves.”

The Pontiac council members said they have no staff, and when they asked for money to hire one secretary to answer the phone, the EFM asked them to have the secretary work for nothing.

Councilman Kermit Williams said, “The law is clandestine, undercover, this is not the way to keep cities from being bankrupt. I don’t wish an EFM on anybody. Pontiac lost 25,000 jobs in the last 10 years, and we only have 60,000 residents. If you want

to change the EFM law, look at a financial plan to make sure that the EFM not only cuts but brings revenue in. Our EFM got rid of revenue generators like the Planning and Buildings and Safety Department, so now when businesses want to locate in Pontiac, they have no one to go to.”

Pontiac retiree testifies in Lansing

A Pontiac city retiree who previously was director of public works said, “I worked 42 years for city of Pontiac, and I don’t like waking up and thinking I won’t have retirement or a pension. That is the only thing left in Pontiac that has a little money, and he wants to get to that. He wants to dissolve the pension board. If you allow this to happen, don’t wake up in the morning and think about your own pension or your Social Security.”

Testimony against the bills also came from an area not likely to be affected by them.

“Oakland County has a triple A bond rating,” said Oakland County Commissioner Tim Greimel. “But I have great concerns about the policy implications of this legislation. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Although many communities currently under EFM’s are predominantly Democratic, there are a number of predominantly Republican committees that could be ensnared.”

Oakland Co. Commissioner Tim Greimel

He continued, “The bills leaves far too much authority in the hands of individuals without discretion as to what constitutes financial emergency. They completely and unequivocally disenfranchise voters by taking away all powers from elected officials. They allow EFM’s to unilaterally and directly contradict charters, the will of the people at the ballot box. They burden local governments with consequences of decisions they did not make. They force local governments  to pay the attorney general to defend the EFM against constitutional challenges and would require local governments and their taxpayers to pay for defense of civil and criminal proceedings against EFM. In communities slipping into financial distress, this would actually accelerate the distress.”

Greimel said businesses will be unlikely to locate in affected areas knowing that the EFM can alter or rescind their contracts.

“Unions will be very unlikely to make concessions because they know can easily get racked up again by the EFM. The bill allows the EFM to essentially bribe local elected officials to buy compliance, by giving the EFM carte blanche to adjust salaries of elected officials. It thus violates their constitutional right to free speech and leaves the state open to lawsuit. It means a massive expansion of government and a new bureaucratic class with no guarantee that it will not overstep legal and ethical bounds.”

Wayne Co. Exec. Robert Ficano listens as Compuware's Peter Karmanos rails against unions in 2007

While ostensibly speaking against the bills, Wayne Co. Executive Robert Ficano’s representative and Flint Mayor Dayne Walling sought amendments to give the draconian powers they accord to EFM’s to local heads of government instead.

“The powers granted to the EFM should be granted directly to elected officials,” Jerry Griffin, Ficano’s director of legislative affairs, said. “If there is a financial emergency and there are powers needed to address it, give us the powers. The challenges out there were not necessarily caused by incompetence or the negligence of local officials. Sixty percent of our revenues come from property taxes, and the decline in the housing market has caused great stresses.”

Walling said, “I appreciate the parts of bill that will allow local officials to have more authority prior to going to an EFM.”

Flint City Councilman Delrico Lloyd and Flint Mayor

He and current Flint Councilman Delrico Lloyd both objected to a provision in the bill that originally prevented elected officials serving under receivership from running for office again for 10 years. Ouimet said that had been changed to 18 months.

The committee continued meeting to discuss numerous proposed amendments to the bills, which at press time had not been published on the state website.

(More coming from Feb. 9 meeting in Lansing, including comments from Helen Moore, Russ Bellant, David Nathan.)

DPS EFM Robert Bobb testifies as Chief Academic Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett listens Feb. 9

By Diane Bukowski

LANSING—Hat in hand, Detroit Public Schools (DPS) czar Robert Bobb and his Chief Academic Accountability Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett begged a Feb. 9 joint meeting of the House and Senate Education Committees for legislation that would ensure approval of another $219 million deficit bond by the end of March.

The legislation has not yet been presented, but Bobb said it was being drafted.

Several Democratic legislators subjected the two to severe criticism for Bobb’s actions in slashing school services while still not reducing the district’s alleged $327 million deficit. The Committee chairs, Sen. Phil Pavlov and Rep. Paul Scott, and other Republican legislators were skeptical that DPS could repay the debt and said they opposed additional financial burdens being placed on the state.

House and Senate Education Committee chairs (l to r) Paul Scott and Phil Pavlov

 “We are not asking for the school district debt burden to be shifted to the state,” Bobb said. “Enacting this legislation will not cost the state one dime. This legislation is not a request for a cash infusion in any way. And this legislation does not in any way ask for the school district’s debt burden to be shifted to the state.”

He said later, “The state intercepts the district’s foundation allowance [per pupil aid] to ensure debt service.” This was the first time he has publicly acknowledged that a state trustee gets DPS’ entire allowance, then withholds what he considers necessary to pay the district’s debt before turning over the remainder to DPS.

His presentation shed light on the willingness of district officials to submit to draconian proposals by the Republican-dominated legislature expanding the powers of Emergency Financial Managers across the state, while closing schools, laying off workers and privatizing school services.

As minority vice chair of the House Education Committee, Sen. Pavlov wrote a bill last year to give the EFM power over academics, dated January 14, 2010, which died at the end of that session. (Read bill at Pavlov EFM bill 2010-HIB-5747.  (See accompanying story on Senate committee meeting on EFM powers held Feb. 9 in the afternoon, and currently proposed bills.)  

Eighty-seven percent of state DPS per-pupil aid this year, $512 million out of $590.5 million, was already set aside by the state trustee for debt payments, according to documents previously published on the DPS website, but since removed. (See chart below, go to http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=218 to read previous article.)

Bobb said former DPS CEO Kenneth Burnley gave Financial Security Assistance, now Assured Guaranty Municipal Corporation (AGM), the right to sign off on all short term borrowings when Burnley borrowed $210 million in 2005, in order to guarantee repayment of that 15-year loan.

Bobb said if approval of the new loan is not forthcoming, payments on the 2005 debt would rise from $22 million a year to $39.5 million.

He did not say how much interest AGM is charging, but it is likely substantial.

Billionaire Wilbur Ross backs Assured Guaranty

AGM is a subsidiary of the $  billion Bermuda-based Assured Guaranty Ltd. (AGL), which is backed by billionaire Wilbur Ross. According to Bloomberg News, Wall Street bond rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) just downgraded AGL’s ratings one tier, leaving AGL in an uproar.

 “Shares of Assured Guaranty Ltd., the only active investment-grade rated municipal bond insurer, fell the most in three months . . . .” Bloomberg reported.

It said the two biggest bond insurers, MBIA Inc. and Ambac Financial Group Inc, along with most of the rest of the industry lost their top AAA ratings in 2008 as a result of the mortgage payment meltdown.

 S&P has now proposed changes in its methods for evaluating bond insurers.

 “Among the biggest proposed changes to S&P’s ratings criteria is a new leverage test to assess the amount of risk (ed. italics) a bond insurer is assuming from guaranteeing debt relative to the capital it holds,” Bloomberg said in its Jan. 24, 2011 article.

Rescue schools, not banks

Bobb said, “Because of all the national headlines raising concerns about municipal and school district bankruptcies, Assured is looking to protect the DPS debt it insures from a potential filing even though the district has no plans to engage in such an action.”

Bobb then ticked off numerous attacks on DPS that he has initiated since the beginning of his tenure in March, 2009.

“It is vitally important that the Emergency Financial Manager must remove the rot from the system he is involved in,” Bobb said. He blamed the district’s current alleged deficit of $327 million on previous administrations over the last 11 years.

Chadsey High School, now closed

The “rot,” said Bobb, included 59 schools he has closed, with another 30 to 40 schools on the chopping block. He threatened a total of 70 more schools would be closed if the loan is not approved.

He boasted of concessions made by the Detroit Federation of Teachers under Keith Johnson, including deferment of $500 a month in pay, an assault on the “Holy Grail” of teacher seniority which excludes 52 schools from bumping in the event of lay-offs, and a new teacher evaluation system for all schools.

He boasted of the lay-offs of 232 security officers, 384 transportation workers, and the recent elimination of 823 custodial, maintenance and engineering positions, along with their outsourcing to the notorious union-buster Sodexo and other companies.

Safeway's DPS bus drivers protest outsourcing March, 2010

Despite a ruling by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Wendy Baxter last December  which barred Bobb from interfering in academics in his role as EFM, Bobb also boasted that he had developed a “long-term” academic plan for the district. Baxter just re-affirmed that ruling Feb. 12.  

Governor Rick Snyder did not announce the extension of Bobb’s contract beyond two years, through June, 2011, in violation of Public Act 72, until Feb. 14. But members of the committee spoke of it as a done deal, as have Detroit Board of Education President Anthony Adams and a number of union leaders.

“Why should the state keep you on when you have not been able to prevent these deficits and possible bankruptcy?” asked State Sen. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit). “The legacy debt was created beginning with the 1999 state takeover. The state has violated Art. 9, Sec.29 of the state constitution which prohibits the imposition of non-funded mandates.

Sec. 32 says that any citizen can file suit to enforce this provision.”

Young evidently referred to the state’s insistence on the district’s maintenance of a balanced budget while providing no funds to see that it happens. Text of State constitutional citations is below.

“MICHIGAN CONSTITUTION Sec. 29 State financing of activities or services required of local government by state law. The state is hereby prohibited from reducing the state financed proportion of the necessary costs of any existing activity or service required of units of Local Government by state law. A new activity or service or an increase in the level of any activity or service beyond that required by existing law shall not be required by the legislature or any state agency of units of Local Government, unless a state appropriation is made and disbursed to pay the unit.

 Sec. 32. Suit to enforce sections 25 to 31. Any taxpayer of the state shall have standing to bring suit in the Michigan State Court of Appeals to enforce the provisions of Sections 25 through 31, inclusive, of this Article and, if the suit is and, if the suit is sustained, shall receive from the applicable unit of government his costs.” 

State Rep. Tommie Stallworth (D-Detroit)

“You have said repeatedly that you are not asking the state to pick up the debt and intend to close up to 70 schools leaving 62 students in a class,” State Rep. Tommie Stallworth (D-Detroit), said. “This absolutely results in failure, which we cannot afford as a state. During at least nine of the 11 years you cited in which DPS incurred deficits, DPS was under state control.”

State Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield) blasted Bobb’s labor and travel policies.

“Why did you contract with Sodexo to save $75 million when according to the Detroit News and Free Press, the unions said they put a $92 million savings proposal on the table? With the number of consultants you’ve hired, why did we hire you? Your budget shows travel expenses of $900,000 in one month, $12,000 to the Sheraton Hotel. The food suppliers you choose are not the cheapest.”

Protest against Sodexo at University of Pittsburgh

Bobb denied the union savings were real and claimed that his use of Sodexo did not disadvantage current DPS workers. He said his consultants will go when he does, although he also said other officers he hired included the district’s auditor general have three year contracts and will remain.

Helen Moore of Keep the Vote No Takeover, Russ Bellant, and former DPS music teacher Callie Smith traveled all the way from Detroit to testify at the hearing. Pavlov dismissed the committee meeting without hearing from them or from the president of the Detroit School Board Anthony Adams. They did testify that afternoon at a joint Senate committee session and their testimony is presented in the following article.

To all defenders of public education: BAMN Dailycensored.com

http://dailycensored.com/2011/02/13/to-all-defenders-of-public-education-bamn/

February 14, 2011

Pres. Barack Obama and Arne Duncan arrive in Grand Rapids, MI, home of one of the state's foremost charter sponsors, Grand Valley State University

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is hosting an International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York City on March 16-17. It is by “invitation only” and timed to take place right before the “Celebration of Teaching and Learning” at the NYC Hilton.

Duncan will be using this international platform to push the school privatization and market-based education policies he has been trying to impose on school districts across the nation. NEA and AFT national leaders, who have, despite their members’ opposition, endorsed much of of the Duncan ideology and rhetoric, will also be in attendance.

This event, which is sure to receive a great deal of publicity, provides us with a great opportunity to publicly demonstrate the opposition of students, teachers, parents and education advocates to Duncan’s K-12 policies, as well as to the massive budget cuts that are triggering tuition hikes across the country, undermining access to higher education.

BAMN is organizing a picket of the event. Would you or your organization be interested in participating? We haven’t yet worked out all the details, and we are flexible about choosing a time that would make it possible for the most people to attend.

If you are interested, please respond to this email with your contact information, and I will organize a conference call to work out the details.

Sincerely,
Donna Stern
BAMN National Coordinator

P.S. The Dept of Ed Press Release about the event is copied below.

December 15, 2010
Contact:   Press Office, (202) 401-1576, press@ed.gov

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, left, listens as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks during a news conference at the Capitol in Albany, N.Y., Wednesday, March 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will join leaders from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Education International (EI), together with the National Education Association (NEA), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Asia Society and public broadcaster WNET, to host an International Summit on the Teaching Profession in New York City, March 16-17, 2011.

The summit will convene education ministers, national union leaders, education organization leaders and accomplished teachers from countries with high performing and rapidly improving educational systems to identify best practices worldwide that effectively strengthen the teaching profession in ways designed to enhance student achievement.

“When it comes to teaching, talent matters tremendously,” said Secretary Duncan. “But great teachers are not just born that way — it takes a high-quality system for recruiting, training, retaining, and supporting teachers over the course of their careers to develop an effective teaching force. This summit is a tremendous opportunity to learn from one another the best methods worldwide to address our common challenges: supporting and strengthening teachers and boosting the student skills necessary for success in today’s knowledge economy.”

“The prosperity of our nations depends on whether we succeed to attract the brightest minds into the teaching profession and the most talented teachers into the most challenging classrooms,” said OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría. “Working directly with leaders and teachers from across the globe is key to investing in our most precious asset — our youth.”

MLK Day, Detroit 2011 "Jim Crow is dead"

Participants will also engage in a discussion on the vital role teachers’ play in advancing progressive, sustainable education reform. “The summit represents a unique opportunity for teachers and their unions globally to consider the future of their profession as equal partners with governments,” said EI General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen. “Qualified teachers are vital to the health and success of all our societies. Their input and status are vital to advancing the fight to achieve high quality education for all.”

The March summit is a first step in what will be an ongoing dialogue among these countries about the best way to achieve and sustain best practices to improve both teaching and learning. The department plans to work with participating leaders to compile and share effective practices publicly in the weeks following the summit.

2 Responses for “To all defenders of public education: BAMN”

Jord Dorwell says: February 13, 2011 at 1:21 pmBy attending the union leaders are signaling their willingness to perpetuate the big lies that are being used to justify the privatization of education.
1. education’s only puropse is to serve the economy in a global race to the top
2. teacher quality is responsible for “gaps” between rich and poor and for economic underperformance.

Their failure to protest corporate reform is a sure sign they have themselves become little more than alternative corporations looking to secure their own role as labor brokers as they facilitate the transition from teaching as a profession to teaching as a service industry.

Reply William Crain says: February 13, 2011 at 9:11 pmThis is the End of Public Education. This is Union Busting at its penultimate. This is the way of Capitalism. Capitalism cannot be fixed. Fascism is brewing.
We’ve had a chances to break this train wreck, Impeaching Bush and Cheney; (or even earlier with Clinton Not forgiving Reagan) The chance again to start crushing capitalism came with SinglePay/Medicare For All. We have one more chance to stop this Privatization of Education for Capitalism… there won’t be many more chances.
We cannot count on Unions/ Teachers Unions… right here in Billings, MT He is (pres of the local union) too scared of what the new slash and burn Superintendent will do. And school board members are Pro-Privatization. he said this to me in a phone conversation where i was trying to get him to come on my TV program and talk about Privatization and Union Busting …Too Scared so watch the little kingpins sleep with the Enemy.



DFT conducts one-day walk-out to demonstrate against charter schools in Lansing, 2001

Algerian protesters break police cordon

Sources: AL JAZEERA and news agencies

At least 2,000 protestors were able to overcome a security cordon enforced around the capital’s May First Square, joining other demonstrators calling for reform.

Earlier, thousands of police in riot gear were in position to stop the demonstrations that could mimic the uprising which forced out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Tunisian revolution ignited firestorm in its wake

Security forces have closed all entrances to the capital and already arrested hundreds of protesters, sources told Al Jazeera.

At the scene of the protests, blogger and activist, Elias Filali, said human right’s activists and syndicate members were among those arrested.

“I’m right in the middle of the march,” he told Al Jazeera. “People are being arrested and are heavily guarded by the police.”

Officials banned Saturday’s opposition march, but protesters were determined to see it through.

Peaceful protests

Protest in Jordan

Filali said the demonstrators were determined to remain peaceful, but he added that the police “want the crowd to go violent and then get them portrayed as a violent crowd”.

Protesters are demanding greater democratic freedoms, a change of government, and more jobs.

Earlier, police also charged at demonstrators and arrested 10 people outside the Algiers offices of the opposition Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), as they celebrated Mubarak’s downfall, Said Sadi, RCD leader, told AFP news agency.

“It wasn’t even an organised demonstration. It was spontaneous. It was an explosion of joy,” he said.

Protests in Yemen

Mubarak’s resignation on Friday, and last month’s overthrow of Tunisian leader, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, have electrified the Arab world.

Many are left wondering which country could be next in a region where a flammable mix of authoritarian rule and popular anger are the norm.

“The timing is absolutely perfect. [Mubarak’s departure] couldn’t have come at a better time,” Filali told Al Jazeera ahead of the protests.

“This is a police state, just like the Egyptian regime [was],” Filali said, adding that Algeria’s government was “corrupt to the bone, based on electoral fraud, and repression”.

“There is a lot of discontent among young people … the country is badly managed by a corrupt regime that does not want to listen,” he added.

Police on alert

Said Sadi, the RCD leader, had said earlier that he expected around 10,000 more police officers to reinforce the 20,000 that blocked the last demonstration on January 22, when five people were killed and more than 800 hurt.

Clashes in Yemen between anti and pro government protesters

Police presence is routine in Algeria to counter the threat of attacks by al Qaeda insurgents. But Filali called the heavy police presence in the capital on Saturday “unbelievable”.

At May First Square, the starting point for the planned march, there were around 40 police vans, jeeps and buses lined up, Filali said.

At several road junctions, the police had parked small military-style armoured vehicles which are rarely seen in the city. Police standing outside a fuel station, about 2 km from the square, were wearing anti-riot body armour.

The latest rally is being organised by the National Co-ordination for Change and Democracy (CNCD), a three-week-old umbrella group of opposition parties, civil society movements and unofficial unions inspired by the mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt.

Demonstrators have been protesting over the last few months against unemployment, high food costs, poor housing and corruption – similar issues that fuelled uprisings in other north African nations.

Earlier this month, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s president, said he would lift emergency powers, address unemployment and allow democratic marches to take place in the country, in a bid to stave off unrest.

“The regime is frightened,” Filali said. “And the presence of 30,000 police officers in the capital gives you an idea of how frightened the regime [is] of its people.”

Wider implications

The PLO's Saeb Erekat resigns after Al Jazeera's publication of the Palestine Papers, which exposed his office's collaboration with the U.S.

Widespread unrest in Algeria could have implications for the world economy because it is a major oil and gas exporter, but many analysts say an Egypt-style revolt is unlikely as the government can use its energy wealth to placate most grievances.

Meanwhile, in a statement, rights group Amnesty International said “Algerians must be allowed to express themselves freely and hold peaceful protests in Algiers and elsewhere”.

“We urge the Algerian authorities not to respond to these demands by using excessive force.”

The government said it refused permission for the rally for public order reasons, not because it is trying to stifle dissent. It said it is working hard to create jobs, build new homes and improve public services.

Other Arab countries have also felt the ripples from the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

Jordan’s King Abdullah replaced his prime minister after protests.

In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh promised opponents he would not seek a new term.

The Bahraini government has also made several concessions in recent weeks, including promising higher social spending. Activists there have called for protests on February 14, the tenth anniversary of Bahrain’s constitution.

 BREAKING NEWS: OAAC ANNOUNCES RALLY IN SUPPORT OF EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION, SAT. FEB. 12 4 P.M. DEARBORN CITY HALL, MICHIGAN AT SCHAEFER, WITH CELEBRATION AFTER RALLY AT 4337 MAPLE (turn right behind Deaborn City Hall, go two blocks.)

  Join us as we celebrate the victory in Egypt   

PRESS RELEASE CAAO- MI  

DEARBORN (2/11/2011) –

“We are witnessing history in the Arab world, the awakening of the Arab people and the beginning of democracy across the region,” said CAAO spokeperson Osama Siblani. “As Arab Americans we are extremely proud of the Egyptian people who stood up so courageously for their rights and we are ecstatic that they were able to oust the dictator Mubarak. We will be celebrating this victory for a long, long time.”

CAAO is an umbrella group for 40 organizations in Southeast Michigan

The Congress of Arab American Organizations in Michigan (CAAO) has announced that a celebration in honor of the freed Egyptian people will be held at the Lebanese American Heritage Club in Dearborn Friday evening, February 11, 2011 beginning at 5 p.m.The LAHC is located at 4337 Maple St. in Dearborn.  

 

“We urge the Obama administration and the U.S. Congress to take a firm and unwavering stance in support of the Egyptian people and the ousting of not just the dictator Hosni Mubarak but also his entire regime,” said Osama Siblani, CAAO spokesman and publisher of The Arab American News.

“We strongly urge the U.S. to reverse its support of oppressive totalitarian regimes in the Arab world in support of the ideals of freedom and democracy that we cherish here.” Siblani added.

Go to Al Jazeera link at right of Voice of Detroit site to reach and watch ongoing live coverage of the revolution in Egypt.

Click on link above to watch live streaming coverage of revolution in Egypt, as the masses are now marching on the Presidential Palace and the offices of state television, in the wake of Mubarak’s announcement that he will not step down as they have demanded.  Ignore Adobe alert to install Flash Player, it’s a diversion away from watching the video stream.

Tahrir (Liberation) Square Feb. 10, 2011

Suleiman: The CIA’s man in Cairo

Published on Al Jazeera opinion page

On January 29, Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s top spy chief, was anointed vice president by tottering dictator, Hosni Mubarak. By appointing Suleiman, part of a shake-up of the cabinet in an attempt to appease the masses of protesters and retain  his own grip on the presidency, Mubarak has once again shown his knack for devilish shrewdness. Suleiman has long been favoured by the US government for his ardent anti-Islamism, his willingness to talk and act tough on Iran – and he has long been the CIA’s main man in Cairo.

Omar Suleiman (r) with Israeli Pres. Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv, Nov. 2010

Mubarak knew that Suleiman would command an instant lobby of supporters at Langley and among ‘Iran nexters’ in Washington – not to mention among other authoritarian mukhabarat-dependent regimes in the region. Suleiman is a favourite of Israel too; he held the Israel dossier and directed Egypt’s efforts to crush Hamas by demolishing the tunnels that have functioned as a smuggling conduit for both weapons and foodstuffs into Gaza.

According to a WikiLeak(ed) US diplomatic cable, titled ‘Presidential Succession in Egypt’, dated May 14, 2007:

“Egyptian intelligence chief and Mubarak consigliere, in past years Soliman was often cited as likely to be named to the long-vacant vice-presidential post. In the past two years, Soliman has stepped out of the shadows, and allowed himself to be photographed, and his meetings with foreign leaders reported. Many of our contacts believe that Soliman, because of his military background, would at least have to figure in any succession scenario.”

From 1993 until Saturday, Suleiman was chief of Egypt’s General Intelligence Service. He remained largely in the shadows until 2001, when he started taking over powerful dossiers in the foreign ministry; he has since become a public figure, as the WikiLeak document attests. In 2009, he was touted by the London Telegraph and Foreign Policy as the most powerful spook in the region, topping even the head of Mossad.

In the mid-1990s, Suleiman worked closely with the Clinton administration in devising and implementing its rendition program; back then, rendition involved kidnapping suspected terrorists and transferring them to a third country for trial. In The Dark Side, Jane Mayer describes how the rendition program began:

“Each rendition was authorised at the very top levels of both governments [the US and Egypt] … The long-serving chief of the Egyptian central intelligence agency, Omar Suleiman, negotiated directly with top [CIA] officials. [Former US Ambassador to Egypt Edward] Walker described the Egyptian counterpart, Suleiman, as ‘very bright, very realistic’, adding that he was cognisant that there was a downside to ‘some of the negative things that the Egyptians engaged in, of torture and so on. But he was not squeamish, by the way’. (p. 113).

“Technically, US law required the CIA to seek ‘assurances’ from Egypt that rendered suspects wouldn’t face torture. But under Suleiman’s reign at the EGIS, such assurances were considered close to worthless. As Michael Scheuer, a former CIA officer [head of the al-Qaeda desk], who helped set up the practise of rendition, later testified, even if such ‘assurances’ were written in indelible ink, ‘they weren’t worth a bucket of warm spit’.”

Under the Bush administration, in the context of “the global war on terror”, US renditions became “extraordinary”, meaning the objective of kidnapping and extra-legal transfer was no longer to bring a suspect to trial – but rather for interrogation to seek actionable intelligence. The extraordinary rendition program landed some people in CIA black sites – and others were turned over for torture-by-proxy to other regimes. Egypt figured large as a torture destination of choice, as did Suleiman as Egypt’s torturer-in-chief. At least one person extraordinarily rendered by the CIA to Egypt — Egyptian-born Australian citizen Mamdouh Habib — was reportedly tortured by Suleiman himself.

Suleiman the torturer

In October 2001, Habib was seized from a bus by Pakistani security forces. While detained in Pakistan, at the behest of American agents, he was suspended from a hook and electrocuted repeatedly. He was then turned over to the CIA, and in the process of transporting him to Egypt he endured the usual treatment: his clothes were cut off, a suppository was stuffed in his anus, he was put into a diaper – and ‘wrapped up like a spring roll’.

In Egypt, as Habib recounts in his memoir, My Story: The Tale of a Terrorist Who Wasn’t, he was repeatedly subjected to electric shocks, immersed in water up to his nostrils and beaten. His fingers were broken and he was hung from metal hooks. At one point, his interrogator slapped him so hard that his blindfold was dislodged, revealing the identity of his tormentor: Suleiman.

Frustrated that Habib was not providing useful information or confessing to involvement in terrorism, Suleiman ordered a guard to murder a shackled prisoner in front of Habib, which he did with a vicious karate kick. In April 2002, after five months in Egypt, Habib was rendered to American custody at Bagram prison in Afghanistan – and then transported to Guantanamo. On January 11, 2005, the day before he was scheduled to be charged, Dana Priest of the Washington Post published an exposé about Habib’s torture. The US government immediately announced that he would not be charged and would be repatriated to Australia.

A far more infamous torture case, in which Suleiman also is directly implicated, is that of Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi. Unlike Habib, who was innocent of any ties to terror or militancy, al-Libi was allegedly a trainer at al-Khaldan camp in Afghanistan. He was captured by the Pakistanis while fleeing across the border in November 2001. He was sent to Bagram, and questioned by the FBI. But the CIA wanted to take over, which they did, and he was transported to a black site on the USS Bataan in the Arabian Sea, then extraordinarily rendered to Egypt. Under torture there, al-Libi “confessed” knowledge about an al-Qaeda–Saddam connection, claiming that two al-Qaeda operatives had received training in Iraq for use in chemical and biological weapons. In early 2003, this was exactly the kind of information that the Bush administration was seeking to justify attacking Iraq and to persuade reluctant allies to go along. Indeed, al-Libi’s “confession” was one the central pieces of “evidence” presented at the United Nations by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to make the case for war.

As it turns out, that confession was a lie tortured out of him by Egyptians. Here is how former CIA chief George Tenet describes the whole al-Libi situation in his 2007 memoir, At The Center Of The Storm:

“We believed that al-Libi was withholding critical threat information at the time, so we transferred him to a third country for further debriefing. Allegations were made that we did so knowing that he would be tortured, but this is false. The country in question [Egypt] understood and agreed that they would hold al-Libi for a limited period. In the course of questioning while he was in US custody in Afghanistan, al-Libi made initial references to possible al-Qa’ida training in Iraq. He offered up information that a militant known as Abu Abdullah had told him that at least three times between 1997 and 2000, the now-deceased al-Qa’ida leader Mohammad Atef had sent Abu Abdullah to Iraq to seek training in poisons and mustard gas.

“Another senior al-Qa’ida detainee told us that Mohammad Atef was interested in expanding al-Qa’ida’s ties to Iraq, which, in our eyes, added credibility to the reporting. Then, shortly after the Iraq war got under way, al-Libi recanted his story. Now, suddenly, he was saying that there was no such cooperative training. Inside the CIA, there was sharp division on his recantation. It led us to recall his reporting, and here is where the mystery begins.

“Al-Libi’s story will no doubt be that he decided to fabricate in order to get better treatment and avoid harsh punishment. He clearly lied. We just don’t know when. Did he lie when he first said that al-Qa’ida members received training in Iraq – or did he lie when he said they did not? In my mind, either case might still be true. Perhaps, early on, he was under pressure, assumed his interrogators already knew the story, and sang away. After time passed and it became clear that he would not be harmed, he might have changed his story to cloud the minds of his captors. Al-Qa’ida operatives are trained to do just that. A recantation would restore his stature as someone who had successfully confounded the enemy. The fact is, we don’t know which story is true, and since we don’t know, we can assume nothing. (pp. 353-354)”

Al-Libi was eventually sent off, quietly, to Libya – though he reportedly made a few other stops along the way – where he was imprisoned. The use of al-Libi’s statement in the build-up to the Iraq war made him a huge American liability once it became clear that the purported al-Qaeda–Saddam connection was a tortured lie. His whereabouts were, in fact, a secret for years, until April 2009 when Human Rights Watch researchers investigating the treatment of Libyan prisoners encountered him in the courtyard of a prison. Two weeks later, on May 10, al-Libi was dead, and the Gaddafi regime claimed it was a suicide.

According to Evan Kohlmann, who enjoys favoured status among US officials as an ‘al-Qaeda expert’, citing a classified source: ‘Al-Libi’s death coincided with the first visit by Egypt’s spymaster Omar Suleiman to Tripoli.’

Kohlmann surmises and opines that, after al-Libi recounted his story about about an al-Qaeda–Saddam-WMD connection, “The Egyptians were embarassed by this admission – and the Bush government found itself in hot water internationally. Then, in May 2009, Omar Suleiman saw an opportunity to get even with al-Libi and travelled to Tripoli. By the time Omar Suleiman’s plane left Tripoli, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi had committed ‘suicide’.”

As people in Egypt and around the world speculate about the fate of the Mubarak regime, one thing should be very clear: Omar Suleiman is not the man to bring democracy to the country. His hands are too dirty, and any ‘stability’ he might be imagined to bring to the country and the region comes at way too high a price. Hopefully, the Egyptians who are thronging the streets and demanding a new era of freedom will make his removal from power part of their demands, too.

Lisa Hajjar teaches sociology at the University of California – Santa Barbara and is a co-editor of Jadaliyya.

This article first appeared on Jadaliyya.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

Meet Asmaa Mahfouz and the vlog that Helped Spark the Revolution 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgjIgMdsEuk&feature=player_embedded

Asmaa Mahfouz is the leader who started the demonstrations in Tahrir Square (Midan Tahrir) in Cairo. In this video, made on 18 January 2011, Asmaa told how she had gone alone to the square to demonstrate, and three men joined her, three armoured cars and a crowd of thugs. Then she says that the people must join her on 25^th January or they will be just as responsible as the regime for what is happening to Egypt.

 Kenneth Snodgrass –
Author of  “From Victimization to Empowerment
The Challenge Of African American Leadership
The Need of Real Power” website: www.trafford.com/07-0913
eBook available at http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=Kenneth+Snodgrass 

KennySnod – 208 Video’s on YouTube at, www.YouTube.com/KennySnod

 In Struggle and Peace, Development, Advancement, and Revolution! 

As a result of the labor-community action described below, articles appeared in the city’s two dailies at 

http://detnews.com/article/20110207/SCHOOLS/102070387/DPS-unions-say-Bobb-chose-outsourcing-over-greater-savings and 

http://www.freep.com/article/20110207/NEWS01/110207048/Union-questions-DPS-savings-from-outsourcing?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE.

NOTE THE FREEP ARTICLE SAYS THAT SODEXO IS ALSO CONDUCTING DRUG TESTS AND BACKGROUND CHECKS ON DPS WORKERS WHO ARE RE-APPLYING FOR THESE JOBS; MANY OF THE WORKERS HAVE HAD THEIR JOBS FOR 20 TO 30 YEARS.