On the same day that financial analysts predicted General Motors’ share price will drop to zero, it was dismaying to read that the Detroit City Council has delayed Greening of Detroit’s tree restoration work. This sense of dismay is not due to some outsized affection for trees, but because of the basis for the Council’s decision.

The Council’s action was based on protests by AFSCME Local 542, whose leaders would rather not see trees planted than to have anyone but a union member plant them. That they would prevent volunteers from planting trees in Detroit is an eloquent demonstration that even at this late stage in our economic crisis, the City of Detroit just doesn’t get it.

Volunteers are attempting to plant trees not because they want to take jobs away from union members, but because there are no jobs available, at any price. Squabbling about retaining nonexisting jobs is worse than rearranging the deck chairs while the Titanic is sinking. It’s like bribing the purser to secure a seat at the Captain’s Table for tomorrow night’s dinner while the Titanic is sinking.

Even more disturbing than denying volunteers the chance to plant trees, is the fact the contract also involved reopening the city-owned Meyers Nursery. In a city desperate for jobs it is unconscionable for a union to forestall a job-creating venture. Perhaps the Nursery wouldn’t pay union wages, but it would pay its workers something, part of which would go in taxes to pay union members.

The role of labor unions has historically been to protect the interests of working men and women. At a time when jobs are hemorrhaging, and the local companies and municipalities which provide those jobs are teetering on the brink of extinction, working men and women are ill-served when their union bosses throw up obstructions to threaten the livelihood of their members.

Planting trees won’t save Detroit. It won’t appreciably improve its chances for survival, or even markedly enhance its appearance. It is a small gesture of faith, of hope in the city’s future. Yet Council members are worried volunteers planting those trees could endanger the jobs of about 54 city forestry workers.

It is a pity Council members can’t take the same long term view of those who seek to do the planting. It takes many years for a sapling to become a tree. As they grow, and mature, trees create work for forestry workers, who nurture, prune and feed them. If there are no more trees, there will be no city forestry jobs whatsoever.

AFSCME attorney Richard Mack argued it was necessary to oppose the Greening of Detroit volunteers. If not, "the next thing you know the city would just outsource everything." What Mack doesn’t realize is that continuing to block even the slightest effort to improve the city will result in what he fears the most. If things don’t turn around, the city will "just outsource everything," including what remains of its steadily dwindling population.