Thursday, November 13, 2014

Detroit Bankruptcy Plan Bad for Workers

US Person said the Detroit bankruptcy managers would attack the pension plans of city workers and it has come to pass. {26.07.13, Detroit Pensioners on the Block} Last Friday court approval was given to Detroit's plan to emerge from bankruptcy. Judge Rhodes said the plan was a model for the entire country. Perhaps because it protects banks and bondholders at the expense of the city's wage peons. The city has 23,500 retired workers and some of them have lost as much as $100,000 in pension benefits. Health care for retirees has been essentially eliminated. Detroit's labor groups are planning an appeal of city's plan of adjustment. The state constitution guarantees workers' pension rights. Even if successful the city has no money to pay pensions at the former level. The plan also contemplates turning over Detroit's lauded art collection to private foundations, expedites water shutoffs to make water bureau privatization more feasible, and places valuable city real estate such as Belle Isle under control of state or regional authorities.

The city has been operating under the diktat of an emergency manager. Even Judge Rhodes tacitly admitted in his ruling that democracy had been suspended for technical reasons when he wrote, "It is now time to restore democracy to the people of the city of Detroit." One critic of the plan said "I personally think they [leaders behind the bankruptcy] all need to go to jail." So much for "inalienable rights".