Michigan

Across America on this Labor Day, public employees whose job security once seemed iron-clad are defending their jobs, pay, benefits and bargaining rights.

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Furthermore, as the public employee unions fight for bargaining rights and pay packages, they’ll do it with fewer dues-paying members. The percentage of public employees who were union members fell last year to 36.2 percent — 7.6 million workers — from a decade high of 37.4 percent in 2009.

Lansing— It’s taking longer for Michiganians to find a job as the recession drags on. And when they do, it’s likely in a low-wage position.

More than half of the state’s unemployed adults of prime working age, 25-54 years old, spent a half-year or longer in 2010 looking for jobs — the longest time on record.

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African-Americans have been disproportionately affected by the jobless crisis. According to the study, 24 percent of African-Americans were unemployed in 2010, compared with 10.5 percent of whites and 13.7 percent of Hispanics.

Unemployed workers in four cities with majority African-American populations — Detroit, Pontiac, Inkster and Highland Park — accounted for 16 percent of all the unemployed last year.

U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Hansen Clarke are back in town this week, teaming up for a pair of events focused on job creation and the impact of recent immigration raids in Southwest Detroit.

The Detroit Democrats will start the week with a “SPEAKOUT for Good Jobs Now” forum tonight (6-8 p.m.) at King Solomon Baptist Church, where they’re expected to listen to residents describe how the economy is affecting their lives.

READ MORE: http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2011/06/john_conyers_hansen_clarke_tea.html

A panel of four U.S. Representatives heard a litany of woes from Detroit residents tonight, ranging from unfair labor practices to the use of credit scores on employment applications to uncut grass in Detroit parks.

U.S. Reps. Hansen Clarke and John Conyers, D-Detroit, Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, came to the city as part of Congress’ progressive caucus, which is calling for shrinking defense budgets and higher taxes on Wall Street in favor of assistance for beleaguered communities.

Nearly 700 people crowded into a sweltering King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit to talk about the best ways to create more jobs in America. Dozens lined up to speak out about all that ails Detroit and the country.

“Corporations are biased in terms of your credit score,” one woman said. “When they see you’ve got bad credit, they don’t want to give you a job.”

READ MORE: http://www.freep.com/article/20110627/NEWS01/110627066/700-Detroit-residents-gather-sound-off-jobs

By Charles Crumm
Journal Register Newspapers

Their report says Snyder gives to rich at expense of public schools

Michigan’s middle class faces a bleak future, a report released Thursday by three progressive policy groups concludes.

Lansing-based Progress Michigan and the Michigan League for Human Services, along with the Washington, D.C., office of the political advocacy organization Demos, said that Michigan is plagued by a lack of good jobs, high unemployment, falling earnings, declining access to benefits, high costs for education and raising a family, and diminished economic prospects for young people compared to 30 years ago.

“Michigan was where the great American middle class was forged,” said Heather McGhee of Demos in a conference call Thursday. “Now Michigan’s middle class is endangered.” (more…)