Unions Members March, Demand Bankers ‘Fix The Mess’

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-29/unions-members-march-demand-bankers-fix-the-mess-correct-.html

Unions Members March, Demand Bankers ‘Fix The Mess’
April 29, 2010
By Holly Rosenkrantz

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka led thousands of labor-union protesters in a march on Wall Street, chanting that investment banks must “fix the mess that you made” by paying more taxes and lending more money.

“It’s time for special taxes for bank bonuses,” Trumka said today at a rally outside City Hall that began after floor trading ended at the New York Stock Exchange. “When you engage in rampant and risky speculation, you are going to pay your fair share in taxes.”

The rally caps a drive by the nation’s largest organization of labor unions called the “Make Wall Street Pay” campaign. Protesters, some dressed as pirates, today held signs saying “Break Up Megabanks” and “Hey Big Banks -- Less Bail, More Jail.” Rallies have targeted Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm, and the five biggest U.S. banks.

Trumka started the march yelling “Let’s let Wall Street hear us, all the way down to the bull” at Bowling Green, the scheduled end point for the protest.

Police estimated more than 7,500 people gathered in the park south of City Hall, before the crowd headed south past the stock exchange carrying signs reading “Reclaim Our Democracy” and “Hold Banks Accountable.”

“They are tax dodgers, they aren’t putting anything back into the community,” said Otis J. Loweryberg, 84, a former International Business Machines Corp. worker in Delaware. “They only think about self -- self-motivation, self-preservation. How do these guys go home at night when people have no food on the table.”

‘Fed Up’

Wayne Usilton, 63, a former Chrysler Corp. worker from Delaware, said he joined more than 40 other union members from his state for the event traveling by bus to the event.

“The average person on Main Street is just fed up with big business and Wall Street manipulation,” Usilton said.

Brendan Plunkett, 46, a corporate bond trader, was heading home to Essex Falls, New Jersey, as the marchers walked down Broadway.

“If they care so much about the country, they should go to work and be productive and stop with the protests,” he said. “It’s all nonsense to me, and it always will be.”

The AFL-CIO, the 11-million-member labor federation, is urging Congress to impose a transaction tax on securities trading to help cover the $900 billion cost for a government jobs program they want lawmakers to create.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner has said he opposes the transaction tax, though Trumka told reporters today it is picking up interest within the Obama administration. “We talk about it all the time,” Trumka said. “The conversation is getting better and more analytical.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business lobbying group, opposes the tax, which it says would hurt more than bankers.

“Wall Street must create” and “not destroy real lives, real hopes, real dreams,” Trumka said. “The bankers, the brokers, and big shots on Wall Street must understand.”

--With assistance from Esme E. Deprez and Moira Herbst in New York. Editors: Steve Geimann, Romaine Bostick

To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in New York at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.