UP Citizens Unite to Protect Working Class | Headwaters - Community Journalism for the Great Lakes

U.P. Citizens Unite to Defend Middle Class

Snyder is Doing What? A common slogan at the rally.

In February, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder called his new budget bill a “shared sacrifice,” but that’s not how many workers and citizens saw it. To challenge Snyder’s new budget and recent bills, nearly 1,200 workers and citizens from across the Upper Peninsula rallied on the Marquette County Courthouse steps with a shared vision of ‘protecting working class and middle class families.’

Citizens Hold Signs During Rally

Snyder’s Republican allies recently introduced a number of controversial bills, including an Emergency Financial Manager bill, which many citizens view as an attack on workers’ collective bargaining rights and democratic decision-making. To add to the fire, Snyder’s new budget would shift the tax burden from corporations onto individuals, cutting funding for public services and schools, and taxing pensions.

“I’m retired, and I certainly don’t want to pay taxes on a pension, having worked all those years while he gives tax cuts to people who don’t need it,” shouted former Democratic Senator Mike Prusi. Prusi made clear he wanted corporations to do well financially but said, “I want them to be good citizens and pay their damn taxes like you and I do!”

Despite the chilly spring day, a diverse crowd and variety of speakers came out to represent workers, including local teachers’ and nurses’ unions, building trades and construction unions, and students, among others.

Carolyn Hietamaki, a registered nurse from Marquette General said, “People who rob banks wind up in prison … while companies get bailouts and tax breaks.” A popular slogan and sign of the evening was sponsored by the Michigan Nurses Association and read, ‘Some cuts never heal.’

Some cuts never heal! MI Nurses Association

But the focus of the evening was that workers and citizens must stay united.

“We must stick together and put up a fight against Lansing … I stand in support of unions because I support the middle class. Labor rights are human rights. How about we come up with solutions where corporations pay their share of taxes,” said the Northern Michigan University College Democrat representative.

NMU College Democrat

Also present was former State Representative Gary McDowell who reminded ralliers that, “We got to make sure Lansing legislators know who they represent.”

Approximately 4,500 Michiganders also gathered at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday to protest Snyder’s handling of the state’s budget and labor rights. Some were asking for recall efforts.

“This new governor, it seems as though he’s not for the working-class people. As far as I’m concerned, he’s a one-timer,” 54-year old East Lansing construction worker Gregory Jackson told the Lansing State Journal.

Michigan Messenger reports that Virg Bernero, Snyder’s former Democratic rival, also spoke in Lansing saying, “It’s not the money changers on Wall Street that make America work. It’s not the big banks that make America work. It’s you.”

Back at the Marquette rally, workers stressed that this would not be an easy struggle, a lesson evident to citizens in the Northwoods earlier this year when tens of thousands of people gathered in Madison to protest Governor Scott Walker’s budget cuts and attack on labor rights.

Mike Prusi urged the crowd to keep up the momentum and work together: “This is not going to be solved by showing up to a ‘rah-rah’ on a cold day in April … Keep your fire burning.”