We Target The Real ENEMY

Wall Street got bailed out. Main Street got sold out.

1199ers marched on Wall Street on April 29 and in Lower Manhattan on May 1 for economic reform, labor and immigrant rights.

The U.S. financial industry posted record profits of more than $61 billion in 2009, almost three times the previous record. And the U.S. economy has grown in each of the last three quarters. Yet the U.S. unemployment rate remains stuck at just under 10 percent. Real unemployment is close to twice that.

With the passage of healthcare reform, the U.S. labor movement and progressive organizations are now taking steps to defend and extend that victory. The focus has shifted to building the U.S. economy by putting the country back to work. “The number one priority in our nation should be job creation,” says John Kapusniak, senior biomedical technologist at Community General Hospital in Syracuse.

New York State labor leaders argue that we can’t create the necessary number of jobs by reducing spending. Throughout 1199SEIU, members are locked in battles to prevent state administrations from slashing healthcare spending.

For example, this year New York State faces its greatest budget shortfall since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Many of New York’s elected officials are looking to balance the budget at the expense of basic human needs and jobs, particularly in health care and education. 1199ers say there is a better and fairer way: Because Wall Street created the problem, it is only fair that it help provide the solution.

That was the message 1199SEIU brought to New York City’s financial district April 29 when they joined 15,000 other union members and activists at a march and rally. Led by AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka, the NAACP, National People’s Action and Move On, the marchers demanded, “Wall Street, fix the mess you made.”

The call to the rally stated, “America lost 8.5 million jobs because of the financial crisis created by Wall Street, and now is 11 million jobs in the hole.”

Speakers at the rally noted that never before has Wall Street made so much money while doing so little for economic and job growth. The organizers of the march said they understand the concerns of activists in the Tea Party movement, but did not agree with the Tea Party focus.

Tea Party members aim their fire at Pres. Barack Obama and are opposed to government intervention to curb the excesses of the corporations. Leaders of the Wall Street demonstration demand government intervention to force the rich and the corporations to do the right thing.

Among the demands the marchers and organizers made to finance industry were:

• End opposition of the banks and financial firms to Wall Street reform.
• Stop the use of speculative financial instruments that make profit for the few while hurting the many.

• Take responsibility for the clean up of the mess by paying your fair share of the cost of creating the jobs you destroyed.

In Albany, N.Y. just two days before the Wall Street demonstration, 1199ers, as part of a coalition of union and community allies, met with legislators to press for an end to the state budget impasse. The message of 1199ers and their allies was the same as the April 29 action: Wall Street should not continue to prosper while the working families on Main Street are still hurting.

“Nothing happens without capital. We have to outorganize the opposition, but organizing is not enough. And unions have to play a bigger role.”

Rather than cut vital services to help fix the state’s fiscal crisis, coalition members said that the appropriate solution is for those who have already been bailed out with taxpayer dollars to make a modest contribution that would balance the budget and create jobs.

Sheila Saunders and her son, Darien Hill, are delegates and activists at Baltimore Greater Medical Center.

This message was echoed by 1199SEIU and the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) in joint statements earlier in the budget process. “It is astonishing that health care is still on the chopping block after seven previous cuts, multiple facility closures and the loss of thousands of healthcare jobs,” read a statement issued by 1199SEIU Pres. George Gresham and GNYHA Pres. Kenneth Raske.

Similar statements have come from 1119SEIU leaders in each of the Union’s districts. “While taking positive steps to protect vital homecare services provided by Personal Care Attendants, the [Massachusetts] House budget proposal does not do enough to address the funding shortfalls within many community hospitals, neighborhood clinics and nursing homes that care for low-income families,” declared 1199SEIU VP Veronica Turner in an April 14 statement.

1199SEIU members in New Jersey have united with a broad coalition of groups in NJ for Health Care to prevent Gov. Chris Christie from challenging aspects of the federal healthcare reform law.

In the Maryland/D.C. region of the Union, “The Heart of Baltimore Campaign” makes clear that the best way to help Main Streeters is to preserve healthcare funding to elevate the status of hospital workers. This also can be accomplished by permitting healthcare workers to join unions and get on the path to decent wages and benefits without employer interference.

Both Darien Hill and his mother, Sheila Saunders, are 1199SEIU delegates at Great Baltimore Medical Center. “We definitely have to step up our political activity,” says Hill.

“Nothing happens without capital. We have to out-organize the opposition, but organizing is not enough. And unions have to play a bigger role. We know that without unions, we’d all be screwed. Winning the reforms that we need will be a long process. We have to keep up the pressure.”