Union-Community Coalition in Lynn, Mass, Protests Bank Abuses

IUE-CWA members joined hundreds of fellow activists in Lynn, Mass., to protest Bank of America's home foreclosures and anti-Employee Free Choice campaign.

Sixty IUE-CWA members were among several hundred union activists and supporters in Lynn, Mass., who protested Bank of America's numerous home foreclosures and its anti-union campaign, all while taking taxpayers' bailout money.

Bank of America got $45 billion in bailout funds but that hasn't stopped it from lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act, said IUE-CWA Local 81201 President Jeff Crosby.

At the rally, Crosby rejected the claims of Bank of America and other corporate opponents of Employee Free Choice that now is a "bad time" to pass the bill.

"They say it's a bad time to encourage unions because of the economy," Crosby said. "Well when we passed the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 it was the middle of the Great Depression.  Unemployment was over 20 percent, three times what it is today.  And unions helped us build good jobs that sustained the economy for the next 40 years.  Unions are the solution, not the problem."

Roger Moreau, chief steward at the Lynn Waste Water Treatment plant, described the trouble he and his coworkers had organizing a union with their employer fighting them every step of the way.

"They fired two people," Moreau said. "It took us three years to fight through the lies and intimidation.  Since we finally won a union through Local 81201, we have started a pension, we made decent wages, we have job security.  We are part of the community here and we can contribute.  We need a fair and safe way to form unions."