Tag: U of M (page 2)

The Republican governor told reporters Wednesday he still hopes the GOP-led House and Senate will approve moving forward on a new bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. But he's also pursuing other options.

Message to Gov Snydholm... It's the numbers, stupid.

via Crain's Detroit Business

The group planned to develop more than 400 housing units that would be sold to Chinese buyers, creating a concentration of Chinese immigrants on what is now mainly farmland.

According to warranty deeds filed with Monroe County, Sino Michigan Properties paid $1.9 million for the land.

Dear Michigan Republican -

For the last 15 years I have been the woman working to end "affirmative action" programs that grant race preferences at the University of Michigan and in all public entities.  In 2003, my lawsuit against UofM went to the US Supreme Court and following that court case I led the victorious Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI/Proposal 2) campaign.

At the time of MCRI, Saul Anuzis was Chairman of the Michigan Republican State Committee (MRSC).  To my surprise,  Saul opposed our effort and worked hard to convince establishment Republicans across the state to oppose our effort, because he claimed it would hurt the Republican Party.

Exclusive: SEIU Helps Occupy 'Abolish Capitalism'

Michigan's Republican-controlled Senate is reaching a milestone.

As of Feb. 24, the Senate -- by its inaction to pass a bill that would end the "Home Health Care Dues Skim" -- will have enriched union coffers by $4 million.

This "skim" resulted from a union scheme perpetrated while Jennifer Granholm was governor. The plan used a dummy employer and a stealth election to railroad 43,000 so-called home health care workers into the Service Employees International Union. That 43,000 has now swollen to 56,442.

Rest here

Michigan Senate majority leader Randy Richardville stood up tough to those big bad unions!

SB 0971 which amends 1947 PA 336 puts the hammer down on public unions trying to organize those loose knit university graduate students.  By golly, they had better apply that IRS approval process to determine whether the position can be dragged kicking and screaming into big labor subjugation! :

"(iii) An individual serving as a graduate student research assistant or in an equivalent position and any individual whose position does not have sufficient indicia of an <<employER-EMPLOYEE relationship using the 20-factor test announced by the internal revenue service of the United States department of treasury in revenue ruling 87-41, 1987-1 C.B. 296>> is not a public employee entitled to representation or collective bargaining rights under this act."

OK you radical Right Wing anti-union types, don't eat that calcified munchie all in one sitting, OK?

"We are market driven," Coleman said. "If we are offering a degree that nobody wants, we drop it."

Right.  I thought so. But the chuckles don't stop there. WSU president Allan Gilmour says there's not much "clamor" for consolidation.

"The alternative (to autonomous universities) is a czar, a commission in Lansing," he said, adding he didn't think any of the business leaders in the audience would want politicians running their companies.

But Mr Gilmour? They pay to play. WE pay to play.  So maybe you ought to swear off public assistance entirely and for the benefit of M.S. Coleman and yourself become TRULY autonomous, so that you can attain TRUE market status.

Ask your economics departments how that will work for you.

The University of Michigan's Mary Sue Coleman now reaps the sowing, as the regents' meeting at a Dearborn locale brought about the now possible unionization of graduate student researchers. Coleman opposed the move, yet the regents voted to allow it with a 6-2 vote.

As the infestation of labor expands into the student part of a government subsidized and over fed organization like the University of Michigan, it should be noted that the two dissenting votes were the only voices of reason available.  A release last night from the Republican party of Michigan reads:

LANSING - Michigan Republican Party Chairman Bobby Schostak praised Republican-nominated University of Michigan Regents Andrea Fischer Newman and Andrew C. Richner today for their recent votes opposing a resolution to allow the school's graduate researchers to unionize.

"Our regents voted with the majority of Michigan's citizens who do not want to add more costs to our universities without deriving any discernable benefit," Schostak said. "Unfortunately, the majority of Regents voted out of step with taxpayers' desire that our universities be more fiscally responsible."

The board voted on the question without it previously being on the agenda - thwarting any chance to properly consider other points of view or examine and discuss the long-term impact of the decision.

"The board should reconsider its decision, reverse itself, and then allow for this issue to get a more thorough examination through a democratic process," Schostak said. "The university should be run for the benefit of the students and other stakeholders, not to fatten the wallet of some union boss."

That third paragraph is the ringer.  This was not on the agenda for the May 19, 2011 meeting in Dearborn.

Classic progressives and their tactics. Wonderful.