DETROIT—Labor and community groups joined forces in a spontaneous show of solidarity at the Detroit City Council budget meeting on March 30. Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 26 and its president, Schetrone Collier, teamed up with the State of Southwest Coalition (SSWC)—a group fighting for residents of District 6 and immigrant families—to demand a city budget that prioritizes people’s needs over the greed of billionaires.
On Monday afternoon, community activists from the SSWC gathered in large numbers in front of the Spirit of Detroit for a press conference ahead of the council meeting. They are demanding the city allocate $1 million for legal defense for immigrants facing violent ICE detention and deportation, $750,000 for a general aid fund to support families affected by ICE, and $250,000 for local language accessibility.
At the same time, workers from ATU Local 26 and their supporters gathered nearby.
The ATU represents workers at the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT). Members came to speak at the meeting to condemn a $13 million cut to the city’s general fund for public transit. Detroit’s public transit system is currently facing a bus shortage, all while gas prices continue to rise due to price-gouging by oil monopolies and the U.S.-Israel imperialist war on Iran.
Drivers’ wages are low, workers told People’s World, and bus route schedules remain inaccessible to neighborhoods on the city’s outer edges.
It quickly became clear that the struggles were one and the same, as the city’s general fund was yet again prioritizing the Detroit Police Department and billionaire-backed downtown development over better public transit, infrastructure, jobs, and protections for working-class people and immigrants.
In a show of solidarity, both the union and the community groups shared the microphone to amplify the message to the press outlets in attendance that the city should fund people and communities—not billionaires.
Representatives from the SSWC testified during public comment about how ICE has impacted their families and communities. They called on the city to break its silence on the violence. Their demands came in response to Mayor Mary Sheffield’s recent claim that there is no “surge” of ICE activity in Detroit, a claim disputed by immigrant rights groups in the city.
“When a parent or loved one is detained by ICE, it is not just affecting one person. It affects housing, food security, and a child’s ability to go to school,” said Maraya Lockett, a teacher at Dixon Elementary in Detroit. “This funding is about stability and keeping families afloat in a moment of crisis.”
The ATU’s Collier spoke at the press conference about how budget cuts for DDOT impact workers and community members alike—both rank-and-file members and immigrant workers in Detroit communities.
In an interview with People’s World, Collier said, “We fight for everybody who has to use public transit.
“As a union person in this industry for over 37 years, I identify with these other groups because we serve the least of us,” he said. “These are the same people who use public transit and who need help. The same person being evicted, being abducted by ICE, is the same person who needs to use the bus.”
Inside the council meeting, more than 80 people signed up for public comment. Alongside the SSWC and ATU Local 26, a range of other community and advocacy groups demanded that the city government represent people, not profits. The groups representing various fronts of working-class struggle were the overwhelming majority of speakers.
The Wisdom Institute and the Detroit People’s Platform advocated for the “Right to Counsel” campaign. They spoke on issues related to housing and unjust evictions, an issue the Detroit Tenants Union also organizes around. Detroit Disability Power and the Detroit Advocates for the Blind addressed how budget cuts from the general fund harm working-class people with disabilities.
As public comment went on, representatives from each organization began weaving each other’s struggles into their demands.
“The blind are immigrants. The blind get evicted from their houses. The blind take public transit. The blind need the right to counsel!” declared a member of the Detroit Advocates for the Blind.
Marguerite Maddox, a longtime Detroiter who frequents city council meetings, stood to the microphone with her service dog and wheelchair, and declared, “These budget cuts affect every single one of us! We have seven districts, but we are One Detroit!”
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