Labor & Employment Law

Holt Baker: ?We Want Our Jobs Back?

By Tula Connell

Shouting, “We want our jobs back,” union members and community allies rallied and marched in Cincinnati yesterday to send Morgan Stanley the message that if it can thrive on taxpayer bailout money, it needs to make sure the community prospers as well. The action was part of the AFL-CIO’s more than 200 “Make Wall Street Pay” events taking place through the end of this week. Speaking to the crowd, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker blasted the selfish actions of the Big Banks:

At a time when young people across the country are worried about whether they will lose their jobs out there when they graduate or whether they will find a job, Morgan Stanley paid?get this?$3 million to their lobbyists to kill financial reform. While Morgan Stanley refuses to lend money to small businesses here in Ohio, they’re keeping the company afloat with $10 billion of your hard-earned money. We bailed out these Big Guys behind us, so now it’s time to take that money and give it to the community and local banks so that bank will start to hire people.

The crowd began its march to Morgan Stanley, as Holt Baker shouted:

Stop refusing to pay your fair share to create the jobs that you destroyed.

Union members and our allies 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.

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 25, 2010 (boomark / email).