Labor & Employment Law

Trumka on MSNBC: Wall Street Can?t Go Back To Business as Usual

By James Parks

Wall Street executives destroyed 11 million jobs with their risky practices and now they must pay to create new jobs and not be allowed to return to business as usual, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today. 

In an interview on MSNBC, Trumka said:

[Wall Street] gave $145 billion in bonuses last year that aren’t anywhere geared to performance or job creation. So what we’re saying is “you destroyed the jobs now you should. pay to create the jobs.” Part of it is a higher tax on carried interest. Hedge fund people are able to get by with a lower interest rate than what my 85 year-old mother paid in taxes a few years ago.

Watch the full interview here.

Everyone could do more to rein in excessive CEO pay, he said, including the White House, Congress and, if they are given the tools, shareholders and boards of directors.

Trumka said the AFL-CIO’s unprecedented Good Jobs Now Make Wall Street Pay campaign has held 200 events in front of Wall Street banks and he vowed to be on Wall Street April 29 with “10 to 12,000 of my friends” to take the message straight to executives.

The country needs an aggressive jobs program, he said, and the AFL-CIO’s main focus is going to be on creating jobs.

On health care reform, Trumka said the AFL-CIO worked hard to pass the bill, making 4 million phone calls and 10,000 visits to the leadership.

 It was a good campaign.. It was the right thing to do for the country and good for workers. And we got a historic piece of legislation.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on April 01, 2010 (boomark / email).