...Occupy — the idea — continues to spread
(From Page 1)
“Their job is to funnel those de-
posits upward through the corporate
structure, generally to out-of-state in-
terests. What a big box store is to re-
tail, big banks are to banking: They
pull the money out and up, and it goes
to their investment priorities.”
These days, that often means eco-
nomic expansion in China, Hughes
said.
“So you have these big banks tak-
ing our wealth, funneling it upward,
then reinvesting it into industries that
are killing our domestic jobs.”
HHH
In Sandy, Oregon, there’s a home
where James Irvine Jr. used to live.
Irvine, a union millwright with Car-
penters Local 96, once built a conveyor
system at Portland airport, and made
$75,000 a year rebuilding turbines at
Bonneville Dam. But he lost work in
the economic crisis that began with the
collapse of mortgage securities, and he
fell behind on his Chase Bank mort-
gage. Irvine says he navigated the
Chase bank bureaucracy to apply for a
home loan modification, but the bank
didn’t come through for him. Instead,
Chase foreclosed and sold the home at
auction. Now Irvine, his wife and their
10-month-old daughter share a room in
‘Cool Schools’ project gets $15
million boost from union funds
The union-owned financial services
company Ullico plans to invest up to
$15 million in Oregon’s “Cool
Schools” program of energy retrofits
for public schools — according to
statements Nov. 10 from the American
Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the
office of Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.
The announcement comes after
Gov. Kitzhaber met with AFT president
Randi Weingarten in Washington, D.C.
Weingarten serves on an AFL-CIO
committee that is seeking to invest
union pension funds in ways that put
union members to work.
Cool Schools, one of Gov.
Kitzhaber’s signature initiatives, passed
the Oregon Legislature unanimously
during the 2011 session.
Cool Schools provides access to fi-
nancing for school districts to fix leaky
roofs, upgrade inefficient lighting and
heating, and make other improvements.
The program pays interest on capital
improvement loans that school districts
can sign onto; the principal comes from
an existing state fund. The idea is that
the principal would be repaid through
savings from lower energy costs.
Since being signed into law, 11
school districts have applied for or se-
cured over $9.5 million for school
retrofits.
Under the program, the work is sub-
ject to the requirement to pay prevail-
ing wage.
the home of his mother-in-law.
HHH
On Nov. 13, police forcibly evicted
Occupy Portland participants from
Chapman and Lownsdale parks, by or-
der of the mayor. Adams said he was
forced to act because of an increase in
crime around the encampment and
drug overdoses in the camp — though
he attributed the problems not to the
activists who organized the camp but
to “folks who have added themselves
in to the original organizers.”
But the Occupy movement seems
likely to continue in Portland, as else-
where. Organizers were planning ma-
jor actions for Nov. 17 (after this issue
went to press) — a demonstration at
the Steel Bridge promoted by the na-
tional AFL-CIO, and an audacious
plan by some to commit civil disobedi-
ence and shut down local branches of
Wall Street banks for a day.
Occupy, the idea, seems only to be
spreading. On Nov. 2 there was a gen-
eral strike of sorts in Oakland, Califor-
nia, which had resolutions of support
from several local public employee
unions; large picket lines, and sympa-
thy from union longshore workers,
slowed activity at the port. College
campuses increasingly are witnessing
their own occupations. It’s only a few
steps from there to occupying work-
places, as workers did at General Mo-
tors in Flint in 1936 and at Republic
Window and Door in 2008.
HHH
On PBS News Hour, host Jeffrey
Brown listened as Occupy Portland’s
Oliver made his points about big bank
greed.
“Yes, we’ve talked a lot about that
on the program,” Brown said, “and I
appreciate your bringing it up again,
but again I want to ask … are you go-
ing to clear the parks?”
“We intend to maintain our occupa-
tion,” Oliver replied, “in solidarity with
Occupy Wall Street and with working
class Americans who are being thrown
out of their homes all across the coun-
try.”
Harkin/DeFazio ‘Robin Hood
Tax’ would generate $350 billion
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Oregon
Congressman Peter DeFazio and Iowa
Sen. Tom Harkin introduced legislation
Nov. 3 to place a tax on certain trading
activities undertaken by banking and fi-
nancial firms.
Dubbed the “Robin Hood Tax,” the
measure — formally known as Wall
Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act
— would raise more than $350 billion
between Jan. 2013 and 2021, according
to an analysis released by the Congres-
sional Joint Committee on Taxation.
According to its sponsors, both De-
mocrats, the bill would not harm long-
term investing like retirement funds,
but instead target financial trading and
complex transactions undertaken by fi-
nancial and investment firms.
The measure will place a tax of
three basis points (3 pennies on $100 in
value) on most non-consumer financial
trading including stocks, bonds, and
other debts, except for their initial is-
suance. For example, if a company re-
ceives a loan from a financial company,
that transaction would not be taxed.
But, if the financial institution traded
the debt, the trade would be subject to
the tax. The tax would also cover all de-
rivative contracts, options, puts, for-
ward contracts, swaps and other com-
plex instruments at their actual cost.
The measure excludes debt that has an
original term of less than 100 days.
“This legislation will generate $350
billion in needed revenue for our cash-
strapped federal government by target-
ing speculators flipping stocks a thou-
sand times a minute,” DeFazio said.
“We need serious proposals to get our
country back on sound fiscal footing.
$350 billion in new revenue will reduce
our deficit and enable federal invest-
ments in our future.”
At the recent G-20 summit of the
world’s biggest economies, many lead-
ers endorsed a larger financial specula-
tion tax proposed by the European
Commission. The European Union is
considering a tax rate that is more than
three times higher.
AFL-CIO President Richard
Trumka, who was in Cannes, France,
for the G-20 meeting and who met with
many of the nations’ leaders, praised
Harkin and DeFazio for introducing
their bill, but said the AFL-CIO sup-
ports a larger tax rate on financial spec-
ulation.
“In order to maximize revenue and
minimize opportunities for tax arbi-
trage, Congress should pass a U.S. fi-
nancial speculation tax in line with
what has been proposed in Europe,”
Trumka said.
U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
is among 11 representatives and two
U.S. senators to co-sponsor the Wall
Street Trading and Speculators Tax Act.
The proposed tax, if passed by Con-
gress, would take effect on Jan. 1, 2013.
K now Y our r ights
if you are injured at work but
not sure you need medical
treatment or file a claim , at
least give the employer notice
that you may have hurt your -
self at work to protect your
rights later , should you need
to file a claim .
PAGE 2
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NOVEMBER 18, 2011