Richard Trumka, HuffPo: Calling on All Working Americans to Stand Up and Fight

[highplainsdem]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-trumka/outrage_b_438325.html

Richard Trumka
President, AFL-CIO
Posted: January 27, 2010 09:20 AM

Calling on All Working Americans to Stand Up and Fight


The news is out: The Wall Street bankers we bailed out are giving themselves 2009 cash bonuses of a half million dollars on average -- not including stocks. Compare that with the $32,390 annual median wage for regular workers, and you find a formula for outrage.

The people who tanked our economy, took $700 billion in taxpayer money and refused to make job-creating loans are getting rewards that range into the millions.

Not bad for a year in which Main Street lost 4 million jobs.

No wonder people are mad.

When Wall Street needs help, elected leaders respond with bold and swift action. When Main Street cries for help, we get gridlock. No health care reform, no financial reform, no labor law reform, and a slow, timid effort on job creation.

The anger out there is well-deserved. Workers are hurting. We haven't seen so much militant sentiment demanding job creation and basic fairness since hundreds of thousands of people came to Washington for the March for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

The Massachusetts Senate election last week signaled a working class revolt -- against business as usual and against politics as usual.

An AFL-CIO poll taken election night showed just how fed up people are -- they want results, and aren't seeing any.

Four out of five voters said their most important issue was strengthening the economy and creating more jobs. Controlling health care costs was next on their list, with 54 percent citing that as the main determinant of their vote.

And they said Democrats have not overreached on jobs, the economy and health care -- they have under-reached.

-snip-

Unless elected leaders and candidates deliver on job creation and the economy -- they're going to join the growing numbers of jobless Americans.

Members of Congress from both parties need to heed the wake-up call from Massachusetts and start taxing Wall Street wealth to create millions of good jobs fast. To get elected in 2010, they're going to have to PROVE they'll create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the health care we need -- and those who made the mess should pay the bill. Voters have heard too much talk already.

-snip-

"Those who made the mess should pay the bill." Exactly.

[daa]

1. There he goes again

We stood with him on the stupid excise tax on health benefits and he negotiated it out for him and left us out to dry. Can you say why trust him?