By Doug Cunningham

Nurses at Detroit Medical Center are in a union organizing effort as management conducts and anti-union campaign. Registered Nurse Hazel Stewart
says nurses want a voice in staffing and other patient care issues and they want the respect on the job that forming a union will provide.

[Stewart]: "I would like for management to respect our wishes, to stand aside and let us continue with the union organizing and not interfere so that we can get back to what's most important - and that's patient care."

Six hundred nurses at Detroit Medical Center are attempting to join

By Doug Cunningham

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 876 in the Detroit has a tentative contract agreement with Kroger covering 9100 workers at 101 stores. But the union is facing the challenge of possible job losses at 66 Farmer Jack's grocery stores that are being sold by A&P. The union expects just 20 or so to remain operating as unionized stores owned by Kroger.

By Doug Cunningham

When bus drivers in Detroit were denied police protection for themselves and their passengers they walked off their jobs just before the Memorial Day weekend. That solidarity and direct action got action. Sheriff’s deputies will now ride the busses undercover. Henry Gaffney is President if Transit Workers 26 in Detroit.

[Gaffney]: “We’ve got drivers being assaulted, passengers being assaulted, people robbed, people shot at. My members just got fed up. The following day the council did make a decision and they did pass it so we could get the Wayne County sheriffs

By Doug Cunningham

The Employee Free Choice Act will be reintroduced in Congress this week. The labor law reform makes it easier to join unions by majority sign-up and puts teeth in the labor law to punish employers for violating the right to form unions. Kathy Ancil is a member of the Utility Workers union in Michigan. She says this labor reform is badly needed to restore the right of workers to organize without fear of employer retribution.

[Ancil]: “It’s so important to have that law into place. A recent survey was conducted and found that 69 percent of Americans would like to have a union or be involved in a union, except for retaliation or the concern for losing their job, or threatened or intimidated. The Employee Free Choice Act takes away from that intimidation. It takes it away.”

By Doug Cunningham

A Royal Oak, Michigan assistant city attorney is suing the city for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights to broadcast a pro-labor radio show. C. Brian James says his job duties were stripped away when the city accused him of a conflict of interest.

[Brian James 1]: “I just find it astonishing and outrageous that in 2007 a person can exercise their rights completely separate and apart from the city with no impact on the city, and yet have their city as an employer take an extraordinarily negative and hostile action against an employee."

James has been a Teamster since starting work as an assistant city attorney for Royal Oak. He denies a conflict of interest. He says unionized attorneys can ethically do their jobs just like unionized police can fairly do theirs. What’s at stake here, he says, are his First Amendment rights to speak out on a pro-labor radio show.

By Doug Cunningham

The United Auto Workers and AFSCME have organized 40,000 Michigan home child care workers in a joint venture called Child Care Providers Together Michigan. Bargaining for a first contract starts soon with the state. Alice Norris is a home child care worker in Detroit making $1.88 per hour per child with no health benefits.

[Norris 1]: “It's just so awesome to have the union, just knowing that you have somebody responsible and capable of being on your side and working with you and for you. That's awesome!"

Better pay and benefits will be sought by the unions as the first contract is negotiated. The workers won union representation through a card check majority certification process.

By Doug Cunningham

Detroit teachers have voted to end their strike after more than 2 weeks of resistance to concessions demanded by the school district. Defying a court injunction the teachers stayed on strike until their union- the Detroit Federation of Teachers - reached a tentative agreement The school district wanted a five and a half percent pay cut over two years. The teachers wanted a raise after going for years without one. The new contract calls for a one year wage freeze, followed by a one percent raise the second year and a 2.5 percent raise in the third. Teachers also agreed to pay ten percent of their health care costs. Teachers voted to return to classrooms today while a contract ratification vote is held.

By Doug Cunningham

The Detroit Federation of Teachers says talks are continuing with the school district in an effort to resolve a strike that started August 28th. A Detroit area judge issued a strike-breaking injunction that imposes fines on teachers of one days pay for each day on strike. The Detroit teachers are fighting major concessions in wages and increased health care costs. So far the Detroit Federation of Teachers is defying the strike-breaking court injunction.

By Doug Cunningham

The Detroit Federation of Teachers says talks are continuing with the school district in an effort to resolve a strike that started August 28th. A Detroit area judge issued a strike-breaking injunction that imposes fines on teachers of one days pay for each day on strike. The Detroit teachers are fighting major concessions in wages and increased health care costs. So far the Detroit Federation of Teachers is defying the strike-breaking court injunction.

By Jesse Russell

An effort by the governor of Michigan to allow adult nursing home employees to consider collective bargaining has been blocked by that states Republican controlled Senate. Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm is seeking to address concerns of citizens that care at the assisted-living homes is of low quality and don't provide the proper care for residents. The Republicans passed a law Tuesday that would bar legislation that discriminates for or against a facility based on whether or not they allow collective bargaining agreements. The anti-collective bargaining bill now moves onto the Republican controlled house.

By Doug Cunningham

[CHANT] : "GM, Delphi, you should know - we won't be your Patco!"

About five hundred rank and file workers marched at the Detroit auto show Sunday to protest the Delphi/GM concession demands. Todd Jordan works at Delphi in Kokomo, Indiana.

[Todd Jordan] : "I'm here today because of the GM/Delphi assault on the working class. We are going to work to rule and we're going to fight this back through trade union militancy on the shop floor. And we'll take it to the streets if need be."

Don Gale works at the Flint East plant.

[Don Gale] : "I've been a loyal employee and now they want to take away part of the pension, maybe all of the pension, benefits. They're takin' jobs away from America. They're just point blank trying to eliminate the working class of America. Not just the UAW. They're going after every class of worker."

By Doug Cunningham

Delphi, the auto parts maker spun off from General Motors in 1999, is pressuring workers for wage cuts under the threat of bankruptcy if they don't agree to take less for their work. Some workers at the Flint, Michigan plant believe the company has mismanaged its money. They don't want to give up any wages or see their pensions cut. Delphi says it lost $338 million in the last quarter compared with a profit of $143 million in the same quarter a year ago. "

By Doug Cunningham

Hercules Steel company in Livonia Michigan continues to lock out members of UAW Local 174 - legendary labor leader Walter Reuther's home local.
The workers there say the owners of Hercules Steel are using scabs to try to bust the union and want to gut the entire collective bargaining agreement - including seniority rights and the disciplinary procedure the union has in place. The UAW has had a contract with Hercules Steel since 1965.

The potential of losing $1.3 million in contracts with the University of Michigan has led to Coca-Cola performing an independent audit on the company's international labor and business practices. In india, the Atlanta-based company is facing accusations that plants in India have drained the water table, causing farmland to dry up and selling products containing pesticides in India. In Colombia the company faces allegations plant managers have conspired with paramilitary forces to kill, harass and harm union members. The company says it expects the investigations will prove all allegations to b

It is still unclear if the third vote by nurses in Petoskey, Michigan will lead to Teamster representation. The hospital contends that the nurses, who went on strike in 2002, have been permanently replaced and the votes shouldn't count. Arguments have been turned in to the National labor Relations Board who could rule in two or three weeks. As it stands, 195 votes have been counted against representation and 109 have voted for it. 183 votes are currently in contention limbo.

A handful of taxpayers in Michigan are seeking a legal challenge to stop Ann Arbor public schools from providing same-sex benefits. The 17 taxpayers, working with a religious law center, are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to apply a state constitutional amendment passed in November to a suit that failed in 2003. The original ruling was made before the current amendment was implemented and the Washtenaw County Circuit Court said the plaintiffs had no right to sue. The taxpayers claim the amendment prevents employers from giving benefits to gay couples benefits because it would be recognizing their union as a marriage. The city of Ann Arbor has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the school district.

An aide to Governor Jennifer Granholm says that benefits are being removed because voters passed an amendment on November 2nd that bans gay marriage and similar unions. The contracts will be adopted on December 15. Granholm aide David Fink says that if the courts resolve the issue of same-sex benefits before the contracts take effect on October 1, 2005, then they could be reinserted. After Granholm, spoke at the Democratic National Convention, many characterized her as a rising star in the party.

Picket lines of union electricians and carpenters have formed near the construction site of a new Kroger supermarket in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. The workers, represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 252, are
upset that the contractor is using out-of-town labor to get around a higher prevailing wage for local union members.
They say that Bostleman Corporation isn't paying the level of wages set by the U.S. Labor Department for the local
market. The union is asking members to boycott the store when it opens.