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Join Us and Make Wall Street Pay |
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Starting today, the union movement and our allies are taking our fight for good jobs now to the biggest Wall Street banks whose reckless greed has gone a long way to wreck the U.S. economy and kill American jobs.
From March 15-26, working people will hold rallies and demonstrations at branches of the Big Six Wall Street banks—Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo—across the country. They will tell the banks: “I Am Not Your ATM” and “Make Wall Street Pay for Creating New Jobs.”
You also can tell Wall Street executives to pay to create good jobs by sending a letter urging them to do the right thing. Just click here.
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.
The AFL-CIO Good Jobs Now site has all the tools you’ll need to let Wall Street know we mean business. There’s a Wall Street fact sheet, along with an explanation of our stand on making Wall Street pay to create good jobs, arguments for extending unemployment insurance benefits, creating good, green jobs with benefits and other issues.
The AFL-CIO supports four proposals for banks to pay a fair share to restore the economy: fees on Wall Street banks to pay back the cost of the bank bailout; a special levy on Wall Street bonuses, as proposed in the United Kingdom; a tax on the income of hedge fund and private equity managers, the wealthiest people in the country, at ordinary income rates, by closing the carried interest loophole and a financial speculation.
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If the AFL-CIO is so interested in making Wall Street pay, why have affiliates given $43,000 to Thad McCotter, who makes all the right noises about TARP and Wall Street bailouts, but consistently votes against taxing the rich for any reason? He has an viable opponent in Natalie Mosher, who believes that the rich should pay their fare share again, as they did during the Eisenhower years (when coincidentally, private unionization was at its peak). It’s time for the federation to put its campaign funding behind someone who will support them 100%, not 30.
I do not believe it is up to the banks. The Banks are holding the money from the government , that goes to the states to create the jobs. The government and the States are the ones to release the money and get the contracts to rebuild the infrastrcture of the country, that WILL spur the economy. Rally at the heart of the problem,,, The States and the Capital get the construction company to sumitt estimates on rebuilding the Bridgesm railroads, ports, highways, Parks. Don’t get hung up on the middle man, go to the heart of the problem. Washington, and the States!!
It is not just Wall Street that should pay; it is also the heartless corporations who pit American workers against those in third world countries where workers are paid starvation wages; and provisions in the trade agreements which were designed to protect the standard of living for workers in all countries( the right to collectively bargain for better pay and working conditions, etc.) routinely go un-enforced.
Representative Peter DeFazio of Oregon had introduced a bill to Congress back in April of ‘09 called “H.R. 1875 Emergency Commission to End The Trade Deficit” which would, among other things, actually enforce all of the rules in the existing trade agreements, thereby making it much more difficult for American companies to pay substandard wages to workers overseas. The bill was submitted to the House Ways and Means Committee in April of 2009 and not much has been done about it since. So my suggestion to the readers of this blog is to contact The House Ways and Means Comittee and/or their elected representative and urge them to get moving on this bill and others like it.
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=10470
Or, if you wold prefer to contact your elected representative directly:
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Your transaction tax idea is a tax on pension funds, mutual funds, and other investments that many of us count on for retirement Wall Street.
Nationalise the banks! Fire the Wall street gangs and put them on trial for endangering our national economic security! Then put them in jail. All the money will still be there. Then we can start over.
Gern got it right about putting the ‘banksters’ in jail. The next order of business is to ‘fire’ the politicians who have been working for them for far too long, Dems and GOP’s alike. We need to hire politicos who work for working class people, people who are REFLECTIVE of OURSELVES, because they ARE US, not SUITS! US LABOR PARTY. PUBLICLY FINANCED ELECTIONS. US LABOR PARTY!!!!!!!!!
How bout putting another link on the side of these news letters fr the bothers and sisters out of work listing were there are uion job openings? Pehaps some of them will be willing to move. Perhaps some f tem would be will to transfer for a step up that may be across town and hey don’t even know it. Lets us organize in what we do best, and get people to work with alitte help. Belive it or not we can more help our brothers and sistes in the finding of jobs that are open. Press our congressmen and senators into the conor to come out fighting for ONE poupouse…..the American Consitution. Democrate or Repulicn, step up to the plate for America!!!