Labor Union Blog

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka (center), Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker and NYC Central Labor Council President Jack Ahern join TWU members and 30,000 other on-the-ground and virtual marchers to Make Wall Street Pay.

Some 15,000 union members and other progressives on the ground and another 16,000 virtual marchers got Main Street’s message to Wall Street today:  Good Jobs Now! Wall Street Must Pay! Marchers in New York carried the names of virtual marchers on stickers as they marched toward the statue of the Wall Street bull.

Led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, union members and activists from National People’s Action (NPA), NAACP, Move On and others took over Wall Street during the afternoon rush hour for a march and rally. When the marchers got to Wall Street, there were so many that they filled up two streets.

At the rally, Trumka told the cheering crowd:

We’re here today for the folks who were played for suckers in the casino economy and will be silent no more. And the message we bring is this: Wall Street, fix the mess you made.

America lost 8.5 million jobs because of the financial crisis created by Wall Street, Trumka said, and now is 11 million jobs in the hole.

We need to go back to basics, where good jobs, not bad debts, drive our growth. An economy where Wall Street is the servant, and not the master of Main Street.

Workers in the public sector and education talked about how deep budget cuts are strangling schools and public services.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous told the massive crowd that this is the time to take back America from the Big Banks. He said while money can buy votes, money can’t vote and all the newly registered voters in the 2008 election will make a difference in 2010.

Trumka laid out three simple steps the Big Banks can take to start paying back for the damage caused by their risky actions

• Stop fighting Wall Street reform. Stop acting like what happened to our economy was some kind of accident, like a meteor fell on us. Take some responsibility for what you did. Call off the lobbyists.
• Second-Stop speculating and start lending. We bailed you out, it’s far past time you started lending to Main Street.
• Third-Take responsibility for the clean-up of the mess you made.  Pay your fair share of the cost of creating the jobs you destroyed.

During the rally and march, hundreds of participants joined a text messaging action and called Goldman Sachs, telling the Wall Street giant to stop opposing meaningful financial reform. In addition to the mass of people taking part, hundreds watched the event in a live webcast (see clips at www.aflcio.org/wallstreet) and commented live throughout the march and rally, many showing the deep hunger across the country for action to create jobs and restore our economy.

Some of the comments included:Kevin Hansel/IN: WALLSTREET- IT’S OUR MONEY AND WE NEED IT NOW!!!!!

Rita: After living through a lay-off lasting 11 months, I’m working 3 part time jobs for less pay! Stop the destruction of the working class! Solidarity Now!!!

Donna:TRUMKA CAN LEAD US INTO THE FUTURE! GOD BLESS HIM!

Liz: TAKE THIS MARCH NATIONWIDE!!!!!!!

CWA 7019: Shame on you Wall Street!

Today’s march and rally followed a week of actions spearheaded by unions and the community affiliate Working America at shareholder meetings across the country.

As the investigation continues at a Kentucky mine the spotlight that has been focused on the record of violations of Massey Corporation has now shifted to Alliance Coal Company. According to reports the Dotiki (doh-TEE-kee) mine near Nebo, Kentucky has been slapped with more than 300 “significant and substantial” violations over the last 15 months. In that same period time the Kentucky Office of Mine Safety issued 31 orders for closing sections of the mine due to safety violations.

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A week of demonstrations targeting Wall Street culminated with a massive demonstration in New York City on Thursday. An estimated 10,000 people marched on Wall Street. Mike Clifford was there.

[MIKE'S SCRIPT COMING SOON]

Could new leadership at the Service Employees International Union see a sea of purple washing onto the shores of the AFL-CIO? AFL President Richard Trumka created speculation on Thursday when he told reporters in New York City that the incoming head of the organization, Mary Kay Henry, has “shown interest.” In 2005 then SEIU President Andy Stern broke his organization off from the AFL along with the Teamsters and the UFCW.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and more than 10,000 marchers are on Wall Street now. Our message: Make Wall Street Pay. We’re live tweeting the massive Wall Street march and rally.

If you’re not already on your way to New York City to join AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and 10,000 union and community activists as they march on Wall Street’s Big Banks this afternoon, it’s not too late to join the call for real Wall Street reform.

You still can be part of the more than 13,000-14,000-16,000 strong virtual marchers to let the Big Banks know its time to pay to restore the millions of jobs their reckless practices destroyed and to let Congress know that working Americans will settle for nothing less than real Wall Street Reform. Click here to join the virtual march. And click here to send your friends a Facebook invite to the virtual march and rally.

You also will be able to follow all the action live right here on the Web, via Twitter and text messaging. We will webcast the rally and march live at www.aflcio.org/wallstreet, and while the events unfold, we’ll also scroll the names of the virtual marchers—so keep an eye out for yours.

As Trumka writes at The Huffington Post this morning:

Our message is simple: Big Banks tanked our economy and took our money when they needed a bailout. Now they’re thumbing their noses at our communities but making billions in profits. It’s time they pay up.

The day’s actions start with a 4 p.m. EDT rally at New York’s City Hall, followed by a march down Broadway through the financial district and past Wall Street’s biggest players in the economic debacle that has left the nation with an 11-million jobs deficit.

Along with our coverage, MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan will broadcast his daily 4 p.m. show from a booth at the rally site.

If you are away from a computer or television, you can still be connected. Just text MARCH to 225568 to get updates. If you are at the rally and march, text RALLY to 225568 to stay in the loop. You also can keep abreast of the action with our live Twitter feed via the hashtag #bankshowdown.

Check back here later today and we’ll let you know how you can take more action to build support for Wall Street reform via text messaging.

Join us today and take our message to Wall Street banks and the Republican senators blocking Wall Street reform legislation.

Striking workers at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia yesterday ratified a new contract by a huge margin—1,045 to 30. After three ratification votes held throughout the day, the members voted 97 percent in favor of the deal.

After 28 days on strike and no contract since September, some 1,000 nurses and 500 health professionals, all members of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), an affiliate of National Nurses United (NNU), will return to work Friday.

The contract maintains tuition reimbursement benefits that Temple had threatened to terminate and does not include the gag order the hospital had been demanding.

Bill Cruice, executive director of PASNAP, said:

Temple’s proposed unacceptable conditions would be in our contract today if we had not stood together to resist their effort to weaken our union. The contract is a testament to the strength of our union and the commitment of our 1,500 members at Temple.

In Chicago and San Francisco this week, more than 1,000 union and community activists in each city marched and rallied and told Big Banks on Wall Street it’s time for them to pay their fair share to rebuild the economy after nearly wrecking it with shady practices that killed millions of good jobs.

The events are part of a week of mobilization that culminates with today’s massive New York City march and rally on Wall Street and included demonstrations in Kansas City, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C.

All the actions target Wall Street’s Big Six banks—Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo/Wachovia. The San Francisco and Charlotte events coincided with the annual shareholder meetings at Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

The Chicago march began outside the offices of Goldman Sachs and wound through the heart of the city’s financial district. Along the way, activists dressed as greedy bankers, stuffed wads of taxpayers’ bailout cash into their pockets and some, to feed their greed, even chowed down on the money.

Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL) President Dennis Gannon told the crowd that the banks need to

“hear loud and clear that we are fed up with their behavior and we’re not going to take it anymore…Wall Street bankers should pay for the disastrous job loss this country has seen during this economic crisis.”

David Borris, owner of a small suburban catering company said:

“It’s totally unfair that we hard-working small business owners and taxpayers had to bail out Wall Street after they gambled away all of OUR money. We have to make sure that is doesn’t happen again by passing real Wall Street reform. Let’s not miss this opportunity to fix a broken system.”

A tip of the hat to CFL’s Orlando Velez and AFL-CIO Senior Field Rep Ramon Becerra for the information and photographs.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, more than 1,000 people turned out in the rain to demand Wells Fargo to pay their fair share for the economic mess they created.

Dozens of faith leaders carried a coffin emblazoned with the sign, “10 million jobs, 8 million homes,” as they marched through the financial district. Here’s AlterNet’s Daniela Perdomo description of the march:

“As the crowd of union members, community activists and angry bank consumers weaved its way from the Embarcadero up Market and California streets in downtown San Francisco, bankers in dark suits watched curiously as sidewalks that are normally financial arteries started to pulse with populist anger. The protesters followed an empty horse-led stagecoach, a real-life representation of the Wells Fargo logo. It was empty in order to symbolize the bankrupt morality of the bank, organizers said.

“An AFSCME union member blew on a conch shell, startling a group of men on their lunch break outside Nomura, a Japanese investment bank. A Chase customer stopped the group in front of his bank’s branch to tell his foreclosure story. He concluded with a rallying cry: ‘This is criminal and needs to stop’.”

Becca Green, a communications intern for the California Labor Federation, writes that when the marchers went to the shareholder’s meeting,

speakers 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. 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.

Read her entire blog here.

Don’t forget, go to www.aflcio.org today at 4 p.m. EDT for a live webcast of today’s big Wall Street march.

The union representing more than 90 teachers and staff at Central Falls (R.I.) High School who were fired last February filed suit yesterday against the school district. The suit comes after school officials made clear that the fired teachers and school staff were not being returned to their jobs. Instead, they have been ordered to reapply, along with all new applicants, for positions at the school.

Jane Sessums, president of the Central Falls Teachers Union (CFTU), an affiliate of AFT, said:

We are disappointed that it has come to this. We have been attempting to work with Superintendent Frances Gallo, and will continue to work with her to deal with the issues. The union is committed to improving teaching and learning at the school. However, we took this action today because we believe that the fundamental rights of the staff at Central Falls High School were violated and require legal redress.

The Central Falls school trustees fired the entire teaching staff of the high school on Feb. 23. Gallo agreed March 3 to resume bargaining and include the union in all discussions on a comprehensive education plan that will help students and teachers succeed. The move followed a nationwide public outcry, with thousands signing an online petition to tell school officials the students deserve better and they should work with teachers to build on improvements at the high school. (Keep the pressure on the Central Falls school administration. Sign a petition here.)

Sessums said the union has always maintained that these firings were arbitrary, lacked any documented justification and constituted a clear violation of federal law, due process rights and the existing contract.