Thousands of angry labor supporters are going to descend on Wall Street later this month to demand greater regulations on the banking industry, including a tax on financial transactions and higher levies on hedge funds and private equity, the head of the AFL-CIO said.
“It’s an unprecedented, grassroots campaign that says: Good jobs now; make Wall Street pay,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.
The blue-collar strike in the white-collar heartland is set to take place on April 29 from 3 to 6 p.m. — smack dab in the middle of the trading day.
Calling it a “March on Wall Street,” Trumka said that the event is an attempt to make bankers take responsibility for the recession.
“The banks destroyed the jobs, over 8.7 million jobs,” Trumka told Politico.com in a video interview.
“Whenever you have a private equity fund that would go out and buy a company, load it down with debt, and then the new company can’t exist after they walk away with a billion dollars in profit, they’ve destroyed jobs.”
Trumka said the protest will call for a slew of taxes on the industry.
“One of the things we’re looking at is a financial transaction tax, a small tax of a quarter of a penny on each share that they sell, on each derivative — things like that,” he said.
“And then to start taxing hedge funds and private equity funds at the normal tax rates.”
He expects more than 10,000 protesters to show up and is hoping the masters of the universe won’t be able to chalk it up as a workday distraction.
But Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of Partnership for New York City, a consortium of city businesses, said demonizing Wall Street is bad for all types of workers.
“It’s certainly bad for New York and our economy to attack the heart of the financial industry,” she said.
jennifer.fermino@ny
post.com