Wall St. Found 'Guilty' at Local Labor Trial
After work on March 16, working families in Madison joined together to hold a mock trial for JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Union members and community activists participated in street theater, calling for 11 million new jobs. Rally attendees demanded that big Wall Street banks, which helped destroy the economy and then took taxpayer bailouts, pay for job creation.
“We put on this play with the help of community allies because absurd crimes call for creative action,” said Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor. “The banks that we bailed out with our tax dollars are using that money to resist financial reform and pad their wallets. That lobbying and bonus money must be redirected towards creating jobs.”
“When JP Morgan and Chase was in trouble, they took $25 billion in our tax dollars to get back on their feet,” said Mark Thomas of AFSCME Local 171. “Now it’s time for JP Morgan Chase to pay to get working families back on our feet.”
In the past year alone, JP Morgan Chase has spent $6.2 million to lobby against financial reform. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon took home $17.6 million dollars in pay and bonuses in 2009. Unfortunately, JP Morgan Chase isn’t the only bank that took bailout money and is now up to the same old mischief.
Since the recession began, America has lost nearly 9 million jobs when we needed to create more than 2 million just to stay even. While Americans suffered, big Wall Street banks took billions in taxpayer bailouts and gave their executives some $145 billion last year alone in pay and bonuses.
According to Cavanaugh, “even a very small financial speculation tax could pay for jobs America needs now.”
The rally in Madison was sponsored by the South Central Federation of Labor. Union members and community allies from MadTown Liberty Players and the Workers’ Rights Center put on the street theater performance which dramatically condemned the disgraceful actions of big bank CEOs.
The script for Trial of the Tycoons was written by AFT-W 4848 retiree Ron Blascoe. The cast of the play included Jim Cavanaugh, Kim Genich, Joan Grosse, Roger Hayes, Patrick Hickey, Heidi Verbeten, Angella Volante, and Ken Volante. MadTown Liberty players provided puppets and props.
With chants and cheers, Madison activists told JP Morgan Chase to pay a fair share to restore the jobs they destroyed; stop fighting financial reform; and start lending to our community, small businesses and others starved for credit.
Good Jobs Now: Make Wall Street Pay events led by the AFL-CIO took place across the country at the end of March. The AFL-CIO is calling on the big Wall Street banks to pay for a major jobs plan to extend unemployment insurance benefits, food assistance and health benefits for the unemployed; rebuild our crumbling infrastructure; increase aid to state and local governments to save critical services and jobs; increase funding for neglected communities to match people who need jobs with work that needs to be done; and use TARP money to get credit flowing to small businesses for job creation. Find out more at www.aflcio.org/createjobs.
I Am Not Your ATM
In addition to these efforts, Working America, the 3 million-member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, has kicked off a campaign called “I am not your ATM.” People across the country are submitting photos of themselves in front of ATMs, asking “where’s my bailout?” and delivering the message to Wall Street: “I am not your ATM.” To see some of the photos collected so far, go to www.notyouratm. com. Working America speaks to 25,000 people across the country every week about the creation of good jobs and holding Wall Street accountable.