Labor & Employment Law

Top-Hatted ?Bankers? Peddle for Taxpayer Cash in D.C., and More Good Jobs Actions

By Mike Hall

In Cleveland this afternoon, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told a crowd of union activists outside a Morgan Stanley office:

“We’re here at Morgan Stanley to make one thing clear. We need good jobs now. And we are going to make Wall Street pay.”

Meanwhile, in another of the AFL-CIO’s 200 “Good Jobs Now, Make Wall Street Pay” actions taking place through the end of this week, top-hatted “bankers” panhandled for even more bonus bonanzas on a sidewalk in front of a Washington, D.C., Bank of America branch.

The rallies and marches are demanding the Big Six Wall Street banks?Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo?take the following actions:

• Pay their fair share to restore the jobs their actions destroyed.
• Stop their multimillion-dollar lobbying blitz to kill financial reform.
• Start lending to communities, small businesses and others starved for credit.

At the Morgan Stanley action, organized by the North Shore Federation of Labor, Shuler said it was the banks’risky practices, “Peddling meaningless junk?derivatives, credit default swaps, overpriced mortgages?none of it real,” that ravaged the economy and left us with an 11 million jobs deficit.

She also pointed out the $3 million Morgan Stanley has spent to kill financial reform. Overall in 2009, the Big Six spent more than $24 million to lobby Congress.

These corporations are willing to spend millions to block reform and keep the status quo. They’re counting on their lobbyists to keep Congress from doing anything.

And that’s where you come in. We’re here to make sure Congress is listening to working families, creating jobs and making Wall Street pay! And we’re not going to stop until we rebuild the middle class.

In Washington, the begging bankers weren’t as lucky shaking down money from passers-by as they were shaking down Congress for billions in bailout cash. But most of the noontime strollers who walked by took leaflets from the Metropolitan Washington [D.C.] Council activists who accompanied the bankers on the sidewalk theater. The “bankers” were not disturbed by the lack of donations. As one said:

That’s OK, we’ll just go get the money from Congress, as usual.

Not if working families have anything to say about it.

Union members today also staged Good Jobs Now! Make Wall Street Pay in Hartford, Conn., Paducah, Ky. and York, Pa.

Find out about events in your area here. If you take part in an event, be sure to send us your photo or video here.

You also can tell Wall Street executives to pony up and create good jobs by sending a letter urging them to do the right thing. Just click here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 22, 2010 (boomark / email).