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"Confederate Agenda Without The Flag" Says Jackson At Labor Rally

DETROIT (WWJ) - Jesse Jackson met with local union leaders Thursday planning strategy to fight what they say is an attack on the middle class. 

WWJ City Beat reporter Vickie Thomas was the only reporter at the meeting and has the exclusive details from AFSCME Headquarters in Detroit.

"The Governor is running a confederate agenda without the flag, whether here or Wisconsin, this anti-labor, anti-civil rights, stripping workers of their rights,using the voter ID to make access more difficult,  it's a state's rights agenda," says Rev. Jackson.

Several marches and rallies and a prayer breakfast are planned before a massive protest in Lansing on April 13th.

Another rally is planned on Monday, April 4 in protest of a bill that passed through the Michigan Senate earlier this month that will give city Financial Managers broad powers; stripping voters of their right to elect such officials.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and State Governor Rick Snyder were both proponents of the legislation and citizens are outraged. The "Detroit 5000 March" will take place at the Coleman A. Young Building in Downtown Detroit at noon.  This 4th of April marks the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who died in Memphis in 1968 while defending the collective bargaining rights of sanitation workers in the city.

Michigan AFSCME Council 25, has more than 90,000 members in Michigan and more than 1.6 million AFSCME members nationwide.

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