The American Bankers’ Association held its annual convention in Boston this week, and Massachusetts Jobs with Justice participated in actions on Sunday and Tuesday with our local allies to demand action to help homeowners in this time of crisis. Recent revelations of foreclosure fraud and abuses have been been a stark reminder that the bailed-out financial industry is still not interested in helping families and communities recover, but are interested only in their own profits and bonuses.

On Sunday, October 17, a group of over 100 people came together at Copley Square and marched to the Hynes Convention Center to call for a national moratorium on foreclosures and a real loan modification program to keep families in their homes.  Jobs with Justice activists joined JwJ member organization City Life/Vida Urbana who led the way, with a giant banker puppet and red doors symbolizing the houses that the bankers are trying to foreclose on.  They put on a skit to dramatize how greedy bankers (pumped up to comic

Continue reading Community Activists Take on Big Banks in Boston

From September 24th through October 1st, activists and workers in dozens of cities took to the streets as part of Jobs with Justice’s week of action demanding economic recovery for working America. We covered a lot of ground, connected some dots along the way, and observed the 1 year anniversary of Bush’s TARP (bailout) program the same way we welcomed it – on the streets and in opposition to corporate welfare. 

With a national economy that continues to lose jobs, more and more homes being lost, and a debate around health care going nowhere unless we step up to the plate and mobilize for it, Jobs with Justice coalitions across the country brought diverse communities together to challenge those most responsible for the current crisis.

U.S. September Job Cuts Exceeded Forecasts, Unemployment Rose – and many believe that we’ll easily pass the 10% figure officially in terms of unemployment (which some argue puts us closer to 20% unemployment).  A report by the AFL-CIO found that workers under 35 are worse off than they were

Continue reading Shifting Gears: On the Offensive for Jobs, Health Care, and Housing

As the Florida foreclosure crisis continues to hit property owners, including landlords, renters are often the most vulnerable and least considered. 

For three weeks, tenants of Golf Villas apartment complex in New Smyrna Beach, FL were forced to live without water after the owner of this 20-apartment complex inhabited by working class families went into foreclosure and failed to pay the water bill.  Tenants had been paying their rent, and were never informed of the foreclosure or neglected water bill. 

When the water was cut off, many tenants self-evicted themselves while others purchased bottled water to get by.  Residents brought the issue to the City Commissioners, but Commissioners were reluctant to urge the Utilities Commission to work with these tenants to turn the water back on.

Members of the Central Florida Jobs with Justice coalition came together with tenants to fight back.  Local faith and community leaders, students, and labor leaders from the Volusia/Flager County AFL-CIO held a press conference to build pressure on the Utilities Commission to follow through with legal proceedings to appoint another person responsible for the account so tenants could have running water.  After the press conference,

Continue reading Tenants Left High and Dry in Florida

More than 200 people gathered in front of Wells Fargo in downtown Chicago yesterday to hold them accountable for their corporate crimes.  Protestors demanded justice for the workers at Quad City Die Casting and an end to evictions and foreclosures. 

Quad City Die Casting was forced to close after Wells Fargo cut off operating credit to the company.  Since the plant closure, UE Local 1174 has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board because Wells Fargo has denied payment of $200,000 in back-pay and benefits owed to workers.  Deb Johann of UE Local 1174 said:

“Wells Fargo first ends financing, forcing our company to close, and now they won’t pay us what we are owed by law. To us, our vacation, insurance and wages mean everything to our families. But to Wells Fargo it’s pennies, not even a blip in their billions. Yet they choose to cheat us out of what we have earned. And to think we helped them out when they needed it!”

Protestors also

Continue reading Chicago Activists Protest at Wells Fargo

Belva Davis is facing eviction from her Detroit area home, despite her attempts to pay her mortgage.  Deb Johann lost her job and had months of her vacation pay stolen from her, when Quad City Die Casting abruptly shuttered its Moline, IL plant.  She and her co-workers are also owed thousands of dollars in health care.

They are only two among tens of thousands of victims of corporate crime.  The culprit?  Wells Fargo.

Take Action Now.

Wells Fargo and its Wachovia subsidiary received $25 Billion in “TARP”  bailout money, not to mention far more subsidy from the Federal Reserve, supposedly to extend credit and keep our economy going during this economic crisis. 

Instead, Wells Fargo and the rest of the big “Bailout Bandits” (Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase – you can read more about their corporate crimes here) reduced their lending, increased foreclosures and are paying huge executive bonuses while:

Continue reading Tell Wells Fargo: Stop the Evictions & Wage Theft!