Workers target Wall Street bosses

THE AFL-CIO spearheaded a week of action across the U.S. in late April to protest job losses, foreclosures and Wall Street's predatory lending practices that helped create the Great Recession and wreaked economic havoc in workers' lives. The target of the actions were Wall Street's Big Six banks--Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia.

The high point of the actions was a 15,000-strong "Make Wall Street pay" rally and march of workers that shut down Wall Street during the afternoon rush hour on April 29. The march was a joint effort of organized labor, the NAACP, MoveOn.org and other community organizations. Before the official start of the rally, more than 100 workers staged a brief but noisy takeover of the lobby of the JPMorgan Chase office on Park Avenue.

Marchers took the streets, chanting "You got bailed out, we got sold out!" and advancing their demands for a tax on Wall Street profits, better regulation of the big banks, help for struggling homeowners and a jobs program for the unemployed.

"Our message is simple: Big Banks tanked our economy and took our money when they needed a bailout," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "Now they're thumbing their noses at our communities, but making billions in profits. It's time they pay up."

As the closing bell sounded on Wall Street, workers were rallying at City Hall in lower Manhattan.

"As I talk to you, I have been served with foreclosure papers," Rev. Lisa Robinson told the crowd. "So I'm here demanding that something be done. They came to the little people to be bailed out. Now it's time for Wall Street to step up and do something...The main message is, stop predatory lending. We need jobs. Stop these astronomical interest rates, and help the people that got you where you are today."

THERE WERE also protests in several other cities. In Chicago, about 1,000 people marched through the financial district on April 28 calling for a federal jobs plan and financial reform. The march was called by the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) and Jobs With Justice.

Union members, laid-off workers and various community members joined together for the lively rally to express their anger at the massive federal bailout of Wall Street that allowed firms like Goldman Sachs to pay out billions in bonuses while working Americans face steep unemployment, foreclosure and a wipe-out of their retirement savings.

One sign summed up the mood: "Wall Street got the gold mine, we got the shaft!"

"We are fed up with [Wall Street's] behavior, and we're not going to take it anymore," CFL President Dennis Gannon. "Wall Street bankers should pay for the disastrous job loss this country has seen during this economic crisis."

In San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C., the actions were timed to coincide with annual shareholder meetings at Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

Despite the rainy weather in San Francisco, 1,000 marchers threaded their way through the streets of the city's financial center. Religious leaders carried a coffin that tallied up the enormous costs of the recession with a sign that read, "10 million jobs, 8 million homes."

After the march, protesters entered the Wells Fargo shareholders' meeting and "told the crowd their stories of how Wells Fargo foreclosed on their homes, profited from their inability to make ends meet, and denied them loans based solely on their race," according to Becca Green, a communications intern for the California Labor Federation.

"Inside the meeting, a delegation addressed the shareholders and demanded that the bank end its practice of predatory and discriminatory lending, do its part to help struggling families keep their homes and stop lobbying against federal financial reform."

ALSO ON April 28 in Chicago, about 100 people turned out to a hearing entitled "America's workforce: Too big to fail! Understanding and solving the jobs crisis." The hearing was organized by the Workers Rights Board, which is a program of Chicago Jobs with Justice.

The backdrop for the meeting was the sharp crisis facing workers in the heartland's largest urban area. Currently one in five workers in Chicago lives below the poverty level, and 70 percent of those are employed full time.

Greetings were given by Darrell Jefferson, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. Jefferson talked his local's fight against cuts and lay-offs in public transportation while an official from Workers United warmed the crowd with news of their recent and successful struggle to save jobs at Hugo Boss.

Workers of all sorts also gave testimony from the front lines of the economic crisis. There was a grocery store clerk who talked about being fired for trying to organize a union in order to combat sexual harassment and discrimination at her workplace.

There was a day laborer who went without work for four-and-a-half months. Now he travels one to two hours into the suburbs to find work, despite his fears of having to confront nasty anti-immigrant sentiment and the polimigra (immigration police) where he now works.

An unemployed veteran spoke about how the military fails to prepare veterans for life outside the military and how employers don't want to hire veterans because of the stigma of emotional and mental health issues.

One of the most compelling testimonies came from a woman who has been a union carpenter for the past 15 years. She has only received about eight months of work during the past three years. She moved the crowd as she described how the crisis disproportionately affects people of color and women. Her observations demonstrate the urgent need for some sort of federal jobs program to ensure that these communities are not left behind.

There were also testimonies given by ex-offenders and workers with disabilities who talked about their own struggles with the obscenely high unemployment rates that face each of their respective communities. Finally a laid-off bus driver spoke about his desire to return to work and earn a living--and the fight that drivers are putting up to win their jobs back.

The Workers Rights Board also put forward their recommendations for how to solve this crisis and make sure that it is not a "jobless recovery." The board's demands include a federal jobs program funded by taxing Wall Street and shifting the federal budget's priorities away from funding costly military ventures towards addressing the needs of workers and the unemployed at home.

The hearing ended with a call to join the campaign to organize the unemployed.