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A coalition of community groups and labor organizations, including UE, are planning to demonstrate at the annual convention of the American Bankers Association on October 27 in Chicago.
The rally, to be held outside of what the coalition says will be the year's largest gathering of Wall Street and Banking executives, will demand an end to unfair predatory banking practices that enrich banks while continuing to hamper an economic recovery. The recession has been devastating for many working families as they try to survive the worst period of decline since the Great Depression.
- See also: Unions to protest banker convention in Chicago (Chicago Union News)
UE MEMBERS FRONT-AND-CENTER
The demonstration will also target the bankers for their fraudulent housing lending practices and reckless speculation on mortgage-based derivatives that not only wrecked the housing market and drove millions of families out of their homes, but dragged the entire economy into a hole.
Another focus of the protest will be to highlight the way banks took billions in federal bailout money, but have since made the recession worse by cutting off credit to employers, forcing plant closings and layoffs.
UE members at Republic Windows and Doors and at Quad City Die Casting have directly confronted this aspect of the bankers’ greed and irresponsibility, and those UE members will be front-and-center in the demonstrations.