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Union: Water Department Strike Is Still On

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Amid reports that workers were crossing the picket lines and returning to work, the Executive Board of AFSCME Local 207 released word Wednesday evening that word of the strike ending were greatly exaggerated.

The union said the strike will not end "until there is an agreement from DWSD management that there will be amnesty for all of the 34 fired workers, and that there will be no retaliation against any other workers or union officers."

Meanwhile, Water Department officials said the facilities were running normally. The strike in the department, which has about 900 employees, comes in the wake of cuts the city wants to institute after a study found 80 percent of the jobs there are redundant.

"The power of our strike is based on the support of Detroit's black community and the surrounding communities of Michigan, including unions and churches, and is being expressed more and more each day," the union said in a press release.

"The power of our strike cannot be measured by numbers alone, but in what it represents to hundreds of thousands of people who understand that the striking members are heroes. Our strike's power is based on the potential of our fight to expand and become more militant, and change the balance of power between the people and the powers-that-be."

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