Michigan Building Trades 
Annual Convention

BELLAIRE - Lansing and Washington D.C. are about 590 miles apart, and the gulf in the leadership philosophies of the respective administrations running the show in those cities is about as wide.

"The Jennifer Granholm administration in Lansing has reached out to organized labor," said Michigan Building Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Tom Boensch, presiding at the 46th Annual Convention of the MBTC July 29-31. "We have a new administration that's shown it is willing to help working people. But the situation is quite the opposite at the federal level. The president has been doing his best to limit the effectiveness of organized labor."

These conventions usually have a political theme, and even with 2003 being an off-year for major elections, delegates to the convention were reminded that casting aside complacency helped put Granholm into office as Michigan governor two years ago, and that complacency is not an option as the next presidential election is only 15 months away.

Boensch said Bush has "continued to wage a ruthless, vicious battle" against organized labor and other working people, by refusing to allow unions in the new Homeland Security department, taking collective bargaining rights away from those federal workers who were blended into the Homeland Security, while pushing to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

Greater Detroit Building Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Devlin told delegates that unemployment in Michigan is over six percent, health care is taking an increasing bite out of wages, there's no end in sight to the costs of fighting terrorism and the war in Iraq, and the economy hasn't been able to shake out of its doldrums.

"But on the bright side, we are supposed to be getting that few hundred dollar tax cut check in the mail soon," Devlin said. "According to our president, that's all our economy needs to get back on the right track. Never mind that the federal deficit will be a record at over $450 billion this year, and more than that in 2004. How cutting taxes will work with deficits like this doesn't make sense to me."

Judge Stephen Borella, recently appointed by Granholm to the Michigan Court of Appeals, also criticized Democrats in Washington for not doing more to improve the situation of workers during the Clinton Administration and now for "sitting on their hands while the economy has gone into the toilet."

He told delegates that the Bush Administration has "used the backdrop of 9-11 to not only declare war on Iraq and Afghanistan, but on his own people." He said Bush has used federal law and judicial appointments "to strip from us the right to organize and to speak freely and to tell our government when the hell they're wrong."

Boensch added, "In 2004, we will have an opportunity to vote for a worker-friendly president. Quite frankly, organized labor cannot afford another four years of George Bush."

Voters in the State of Michigan in 2002 decided they could not afford another four years of the policies of former Gov. John Engler, when they voted for Granholm and against former Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus.

Granholm's Lt. Governor John Cherry, told delegates that the administration appreciates organized labor's historic role in the state, and welcomes union input in setting the future course of Michigan. "We are proud to call you partners," Cherry said.

Any progress, however, is being done under the huge shadow of an inherited state financial deficit so large that history offered little guide for action.

"We inherited a budget deficit of $1.7 billion, and balanced it without a tax increase," Cherry said. "Despite our fiscal problems, we brought in a reasonable budget plan that makes education our top priority and protects Michigan families."

Cherry pointed out that the Granholm administration "recognizes the value of individual workers as absolutely essential to our long-term growth." Despite the state's budget woes, the number of MIOSHA workplace safety inspectors was not reduced. "I wish we had money for more," Cherry said, "but we will be revisiting the issue when the economy improves."