Word out of Chicago is that a group of 250 recently laid-off workers are peacefully refusing to leave their recently closed warehouse. You can read the whole story here, an excerpt from the groups leader below:
"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."
Unfortunately this class warfare rhetoric, stoked incessantly over the last 8 years, really does no one any good in a crisis. Conservative or progressive, labor or management, the truth is the bank bailout was necessary. It's true, a window manufacturer and a bank are both businesses ultimately responsible for their own P&L. But it's also true that a bank and a window manufacturer vis-a-vis trade and commerce are not equal. Unfortunately banks are waaaay more important to the functioning of this system and thus must be treated as such...this is just a fact.
I understand the movement, but knowledgeable progressives would do well to explain to friends and family alike that the bank bailout was just as necessary for labor as it was for the CEO. The sooner we do away with trivialities during this VERY REAL AND VERY SERIOUS GLOBAL CRISIS the better.
