Consumers Say Bye-Bye to Big Banks
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When Big Banks nickel and dime you with fees on just about everything from checking accounts to ATMs to debit cards, they turn those nickels and dimes into billions of profits.
On Saturday, consumers struck back with “Bank Transfer Day,” when they switched from behemoth banks like Bank of America (BofA), Chase and Citi to non-profit credit unions. But Saturday was just one day in what has been a steady stream of movement over the past month away from corporate banks.
It’s too early to tell how many made the switch on Saturday, but since Sept. 29, when BofA announced it would charge consumers a monthly fee for debit card purchases—that it dropped a few days ago, following public outrage—more than 650,000 people opened new accounts with credit unions, according to the Credit Union National Association. The group says its members attributed most of the upsurge to consumers fed up with bank fees and to the publicity Bank Transfer Day received.
Bank Transfer Day was the idea of 27-year-old Los Angeles art gallery owner Kristen Christian who, a month ago, started a Facebook page (now with nearly 60,000 likes) to promote the protest against Big Bank greed. She wrote:
Bank of America’s Unconscionable Debit Card Fee Grab
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The Big Banks still don’t get it. Bank of America recently announced that it will start charging its customers $5 per month to use their debit cards. Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase are considering similar fees on their customers.
For many workers, debit cards have replaced credit cards as a more affordable way to make purchases with their money. Unlike credit cards that carry high interest rates on their balances, debit card transactions transfer money directly from customers’ bank accounts like writing a check.
The Big Banks claim that these new fees are necessary because the Federal Reserve cut the amount that banks can charge merchants each time their customers swipe a debit card. These so-called “swipe fees” are passed on to customers in the form of higher prices. Read the rest of this entry »
Tell Corporate Tax Dodgers: Pay Up!
As part of the Tax Day: Make Them Pay mobilization, the AFL-CIO community affiliate Working America is urging people to tell Congress to close the corporate tax loopholes that allow companies like ExxonMobil to rake in $19 billion in profits in 2009 and yet pay no federal income taxes—and instead, get a $156 million rebate from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). You can tell these corporate tax scofflaws to pay up—click here.
Exxon Mobil is one of the top five tax avoiders. The others are:
’60 Minutes’ Shills for Corporate Tax Breaks
Corporate taxes–or more succinctly corporate tax avoidance–has grabbed some big headlines recently starting with The New York Times report that GE, with worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, didn’t pay a dime of U.S. tax in 2010, but got $3.2 billion tax benefit. All legit and all because of corporate tax loopholes companies like GE have lobbied hard to put in place.
(Wealthy individuals are no slouches at avoiding taxes either–see below.)
That launched a slew of stories on other hugely profitable and tax dodging corporations like Exxon Mobil, Bank of America and Citi Group (click here for a look at the Daily Beast’s gallery of the 15 top “Tax Escape Artists”) that culminated in a “60 Minutes” segment on CBS.
But while “60 Minutes” has been known to take on corporate scofflaws, not so this time. After describing how hundreds of billions of tax dollars have been lost through corporate tax loopholes, the rest of the segment became a platform for corporate mouthpieces to whine about how the so-called “high” U.S. tax rate forced them to move operations, jobs and taxable profits overseas.
In an open letter to CBS, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United (NNU), called the 60 Minutes segment a “stunning disservice to all the Americans who are harmed by a national budget that is seriously distorted by the failure of so many U.S. corporations to pay their fair share.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hotel Workers Tell Bank: “We Saved Your Jobs, Now You Save Ours”
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Taxpayers bailed out Bank of America to the tune of $45 billion. Now, it’s time for the Big Bank to return the favor by saving the jobs of more than 1,500 hotel workers.
By October, the Columbia-Sussex hotel chain needs to refinance its $1.1 billion loan or it may potentially default. Bank of America is the special servicer of $539 million of Columbia-Sussex’s debt. If the company is forced into default, the workers could be out on the streets.
Karl Taylor, a member of UNITE HERE! Local 7, who has worked at the Sheraton Baltimore City Center for 11 years, says
It’s been a rough few years with all the cuts from Columbia Sussex, but now I just hope Bank of America saves my job.
Late this afternoon, hundreds of Columbia-Sussex employees and supporters braved the rain to rally outside a Bank of America branch in Washington, D.C., to back Taylor and his co-workers. Standing by the BOA building, which is in the shadows of the U.S. Treasury Department, they told the bankers whose jobs they rescued with their taxes to “Save Our Jobs.” They want Bank of America to protect their jobs regardless of how their employers’ debt is ultimately worked out.
N.Y. Coalition Tells Big Banks Do More to Stop Foreclosures
A coalition of New York City unions and community groups, joined by city Comptroller John Liu, told some of the biggest banks that received hundreds of billions in taxpayer bailouts that it’s time to help out New York homeowners facing foreclosure.
In letters to JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC, Wachovia and U.S. Bank, the group says the banks are not doing enough to modify mortgages to help homeowners stay in their homes.
Activists Brave Rain, Tell K Street Lobbyists: ‘We’re the Face of Democracy’
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Under a sea of bobbing umbrellas, some 2,000 union and community activists—clad in a colorful array of T-shirts covered by rain ponchos, many improvised with trash bags—showed K Street lobbyists and Wall Street’s Big Banks “the face of democracy” today in Washington, D.C.
We staged the Showdown on K Street because it’s a notorious avenue of high-priced, influence peddling, Big Bank and corporate lobbyists. Speaking to the crowd, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler said our presence sent a clear message that Wall Street needs to pay for the jobs its reckless practices destroyed and to stop its $1.4 million a day bid to kill Wall Street reform legislation.
The 11 million jobs lost in this crisis are real jobs. But they weren’t really lost, were they? They were stolen. You might say that these jobs were collateral damage. The casualties of K Street and Wall Street.
We’re not going to stand for that. We need good jobs now. We need to invest in America now. And Wall Street needs to pay.
Join Us Today for the K Street Showdown
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Congress is poised to vote on Wall Street reform—the most important to our financial system in decades. We are taking our message “Good Jobs Now! Make Wall Street Pay” to K Street, the power corridor in Washington, D.C., where Big Bank lobbyists plot to kill real financial reform and peddle corporate influence on Capitol Hill.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will lead a large contingent of working families and union staff today, May 17, as we join with our partners from National People’s Action, Move On, SEIU and others to rally and call out the lobbyists for the Big Banks.
The rally kicks off at 11:45 a.m., in McPherson Square at the intersection of K Street and Vermont Ave., N.W.. If you can’t be there in person, join us as we live webstream the rally at www.aflcio.org. Also at www.aflcio.org, you can join in the discussion and leave your comments. Follow the action on Twitter via #bankshowdown and check back here, where we’ll be tweeting the event live. And there’s still time to invite your friends to join us online via Facebook.
Join Us at the K Street Showdown May 17
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We’re getting set for the Showdown on K Street, the Washington, D.C., power corridor where Big Bank and corporate lobbyists scheme and scam to kill Wall Street reform and peddle corporate influence on Capitol Hill.
On May 17, at 11:45 a.m., ET, working families will bring their influence to the nation’s capital. The AFL-CIO, National People’s Action, Move On, SEIU and others will rally to call out the lobbyists who do Wall Street’s dirty work. Click here to sign up to be there in person or join us online.
We’re especially targeting the lobbyists for Wall Street’s Big Six Banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia.
From last year to today, Big Banks are spending some $1.4 million a day in lobbying and political expenses to fight legislation that would reform the financial industry and help prevent another economic meltodown. There are four Big Bank lobbyists for every member of Congress.
Wall Street Reform Actions Go Nationwide
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When Wells Fargo shareholders gather for the big bank’s annual shareholders meeting today in San Francisco, they’ll have a lot of company—about 1,000 workers and community and religious activists. They plan to tell Wells Fargo CEOs it’s time to start paying for the jobs they destroyed and that working people “will not be your ATM.”
The San Francisco march and rally is part of a huge week of mobilization for Wall Street reform spearheaded by the AFL-CIO, Working America and community allies, including a Thursday march and rally on Wall Street that is expected to draw 10,000 marchers and nearly as many “virtual marchers.” Click here for more information on the virtual march.
