DETROIT, April 13 (UPI) -- Eighty-two Detroit bus drivers called in sick Wednesday to join union protests in Lansing against state budget cuts, city officials said.
The city's bus capacity was cut to 80 percent, transit director Lovevett Williams told the Detroit Free Press. About 55 of the 252 drivers scheduled to be working at 9:30 a.m. were absent.
Union workers from across Michigan were converging on the state Capitol, taking part in a "National Day of Protest" organized by the AFL-CIO and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
"We all need to stand together in solidarity and fight those that feel it would be better to employ an unskilled, lower-paid and unrepresented workforce," said AFSCME Council 25's calls to metro Detroit members. "As we watch the events unfold in Madison, Wis., these events will soon be repeated across America, unless we all stand united."
At least one Detroit bus rider sympathized.
"I can't blame them," said Walter Sims, 67. "Take some of those salaries from the people in Lansing. They're not doing anything and they are making all the money, and then they want to cut at all the people out here."
