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Legislation approved Wednesday by the Michigan state Senate is being called worse than the anti-union legislation coming out of Wisconsin. The Michigan bill, referred to as the “emergency manager” law, greatly expands the powers of emergency financial managers. The law would allow the State to strip a city government or school board of its power if the Governor declares a financial emergency in the targeted municipality. A State appointed emergency financial manager would then be given broad powers, in pursuance of a balanced budget, to terminate union contracts, seize and sell assets, and fire elected officials. Labor unions are calling it a union-busting bill. Many are voicing concern it renders the right to vote and the Democratic process null and void, with no public input on who is appointed manager or how the manager will operate once in place. On Tuesday Naomi Klein, in conversation with Amy Goodman, called the bill, “a corporate coup d’etat.” Klein said the specific language of the legislation defines an emergency manager as a person, or a firm. This opens the door for governments to be replaced by corporations in what she described as “privatization of a whole town by fiat.” Filmmaker Michael Moore, a Michigan native, said yesterday that the multi-state assault on labor unions and the power being transferred to corporations is a, “class war on the people of this country by those in power and the tools [the legislators] they have bought and paid for.”

GUESTS: State Senator Gretchen Whitmer, of East Lansing, Senate Minority Leader, Mark Gaffney, Michigan State AFL-CIO president