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Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
CHICAGO - Workers who got three days' notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay.
Mario Neria stands in the doorway at the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 in Chicago. Workers laid off from their jobs at the factory have occupied the building since Friday and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.(AP Photo/Brian Kersey) About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.
Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days' notice required by law before shutting down.
During the two-day peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.
"We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," she said, referring to a tactic most famously used in 1936-37 by General Motors factory workers in Flint, Mich., to help unionize the U.S. auto industry.
Fried said the company can't pay its 300 employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors."
Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.
"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."
Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."
The Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights group, announced in a news release Saturday that Jesse Jackson planned to visit the workers Sunday morning to offer his support.
Larry Spivack, regional director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, said the peaceful action will add to Chicago's rich history in the labor movement, which includes the 1886 Haymarket affair, when Chicago laborers and anarchists gathering in a square on the city's west side drew national attention after an unidentified person threw a bomb at police.
"The history of workers is built on issues like this here today," Spivack said.
Representatives of Republic Windows did not immediately respond Saturday to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.
Workers were angered when company officials didn't show up for a meeting Friday that had been arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, Fried said. Union officials said another meeting with the company is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
"We're going to stay here until we win justice," said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours. Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she's owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck. Most of the factory's workers are Hispanic.
99 Comments so far
Show AllPROTESTORS:WE GOT SOLD OUT. When I first read this headline, I thought it was an article about Obama selling out!
Yeah, me too.
· Yr Obd't Servant
P R, G, and O S,
Allow me to introduce you to Barack Obama, Community Organizer, the person and activism that you and Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani, et al, mocked during the Repub National Convention.
This is the organizing work that spurred Obama to move to Chicago in 1983. He writes about at length in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, chapters seven through fourteen.
In this, Barack is the antithesis of Reagan who in 1976 conjured up the image of the "welfare queen in Chicago" who drove in a cadillac to pick up her welfare checks.
These people are hardly welfare chiselers; they want to work so badly they refuse to leave the plant!
.Loyalty is a nice thing, but accuracy is a better thing. I defy you to give me one instance in which the campaigning Barack Obama mentioned the two little words,"poor people". Further I would ask you to note specific policy proposals the Obama team has put forth to assist working folks.
I have seen an almost overzealous candidate Obama rush to Washington to gain a welfare check for Wall Street crooks and liars who were totally responsible for the economic meltdown now in progress but aside from an occasional reference to the middle class Ive seen no desire whatsoever to put forth proposals to help the vast majority of America's workers.
On the other hand I applaud the addition of General Shinseki to the administration.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Wasn't it McCain that rushed to Washington while Obama was reserved and spoke of handling more than one problem at a time?
I agree with choice of Shinseki and find it ironic that he now is going to be responsible for cleaning up the mess he warned Bush about, while Bush waltzes away.
.No, in fact it was both candidates who suspended their campaigns to pimp for Wall Street. Both attended the meetings and both lobbied successfully for the bailout. I do not blame them, what could they do after all, being owned as they are.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Sioux Rose
ARDEE: Thank you for presenting FACTS with patience and skill. Some people just cannot SEE past the board placed before their own eyes.
ardee,
The book, Dreams from My Father, Barack's autobiography, may provide you some answers, perhaps not. Those eight chapters that I mentioned are all about poor people in low-income housing on Chicago's south side. This was the community organizing in which Obama was involved for several years.
.Books are compilations of words, I can write anything. Actions, however, are what is important and Barack Obama is nothing more or less than a typical Chicago politician with a gift of glibness. His speeches are models of empty demagoguery and his actions consistently rightward bound. Why bury your head in a book when his changing message is right there in the real world?
Before the primary he was the only politician in America against this war, or so he said. After the nomination he was for a continuation of our presence in Iraq and our entry into Pakistan. After the election he is filling his administration with conservatives and ,in at least one specific case, with one who believes in the Bush Doctrine ( Gates).He has supported welfare for Wall Street and not for those who really need such assistance, this is not my idea of progressiveism, is it really yours? I suspect rather strongly that we will see huge cuts in spending and those will come from the services provided to the poor, the young, the elderly and not from those who continue to avoid paying their fair share.
Look, I am a voracious reader, but I look up from my book and watch the world around me too....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I think you are quite correct in your present analysis. Unfortunately for Obama, he will not be able to comfortably ignore the plight of the growing hungry. Obama will be forced to make a hard choice inwardly: toward growth or toward serving corruption. If he does not strive to break the castle of corruption of which he is presently a part it will, in one way or another, break him. Have you taken a good look at GWB lately? He looks pitiable. His lips smile, but his eyes reveal a deep sadness. There is a kind of 'justice' in the world that has nothing to with courts and/or legal decisions. Some have said that 'corruption of the soul' is far worse than any death sentence.
.I have noted that every President since Ike has been worn down by the job.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I thought the same thing as you did.
Oh really,
BY ABDON PALLASCH Sun-Times Political Reporter
President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
“Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,’’ he said. “Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
“That’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s going to be the central focus of my administration.”
As I noted in comments to John Nichols' article on this subject:
Remember, the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1.
Unless Blackwater low-balls them, this might be a great opportunity for our fighting boys & girls to strut their stuff!
· Yr Obd't Servant
A small thing to do would be to send a protest message to Bank of America:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/
Thanks, I did. It's good to have something to do besides gnashing your teeth!
Yep...we've all been sold out, BUT remember the voters had a chance to change things. They voted for more of the same. Now voters remorse is setting in. Sorry, but we get what we vote for. If Nader was Prez, and the Congress had more Independents we would have BIG CHANGE.
busterkikki
Rosemary, I don't want to pick on you, but a lot of us are getting tired of hearing this "if" stuff. Obama hasn't even taken office yet, and you, by your statments, are expecting failure on his part before he even has a chance.
Do you think you are being fair?
"Do you think you are being fair?"
Have you noticed the people Obama is surrounding himself with? Does it sound like change to you?
Rickster
No ifs about it: real change can only come when enough citizens are willing to tire themselves out by working for and voting for those who represent the wishes of the masses instead of voting for those the profiteering establishment backs.
That would be the kind of tired that rewards, not the kind that irritates those "lot of us" folks you claim to, and unfortunately do, represent.
As for you rosemarie jackowski, keep repeating the mantra "we get what we vote for," and maybe someday the busters of the country will finally wake up and understand. Just don't hold your breath. As Michael Moore said: "Americans are the dumbest people on the planet."
Once again, all together now: We get what we vote for.
Polls have shown that about 80% of the people of the US want affordable universal health care with those wanting single payer health care forming a majority of that 80%. Polls have shown that the majority of citizens want the US out of Iraq immediately.
When those don't happen, not even in the next four or eight years, don't forget that Rosemary told you: We get what we vote for.
.Continue to speak the truth as you see it, Ms. Jackowski. Do not be deterred by those who refuse to analyze the candidacy and the appointments of our new President Elect, both of which clearly point to a rightward leaning and an obeisance to the same old moneyed class that has run this govt and run this economy into the ground while getting filthy rich in the process.
Electing independents to office is, in fact, the only way short of violent revolution to rid our governance of the influence and power of money. Those who continue to call for an end to criticism are, in the end, a part of the problem and will only come on board when the issue is no longer in doubt. Hypocrites and cowards all.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
ardee,
I don't think so.... as posted below from the Chicago sun times
"BY ABDON PALLASCH Sun-Times Political Reporter
President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
“Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,’’ he said. “Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
“That’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s going to be the central focus of my administration.”
J I M _ G L O V E R,
Thank you for providing the latest up to date information, although how well this rubber will hit this road ( or in any other future example ), will vary significantly as does our mileage.
Obama silage to propel our mileage -- there is a glimmer of hope, yet I feel reluctant to "bank" on it.
Namaste
.I read this the first time you posted it, about eleven inches up. I see this as offering assistance, not to the workers but, in his own words," That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system". You know, the very system in which overwhelming greed and selfishness caused this mess in the first place....
Now if he wants to guarantee workers pensions are fully funded, the lack of which is partially what is bringing down the big three auto makers by the by, if he wants to install programs to retrain laid off workers, if he wants to guarantee workers the right to organize, if he wishes to re-institute a tariff structure to protect American manufacturing jobs, well where do I sign up?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
As a Teamster, Dubuque Local 421, I view as encouraging that these union workers are organizing to stand up to this surprise and unjust plant closure.
Dennis Kucinich's rallying speech at the convention comes to mind: "Wake up, America!"
Indeed, it's time to wake up and organize and stand up for what's right.
Bill in Dubuque
For more info on this event, today's Daily Kos has a great Recommended Diary by ChicagoLife: "Updated II (with Video): Republic Window Workers Occupy Factory".
Sioux Rose
I just wrote a list of all the things I have been subjected to at Bank of A, whether the CD censors had their lights on, or whatever, it was not posted. I have NEVER dealt with a more unfair punitive bank in my adult life. They deserve to fail, and whoever writes policy for that bank should have to clean up the depeleted uranium toilets of IRaq.
.They are little different from most major banking institutions. CitiGroup in fact has been associated with almost every major financial scandal in our modern history. I think that old A.P. Giannini would be rolling in his grave about now.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
"whether the CD censors had their lights on, or whatever,"
I'm pretty that sure CD doesn't engage in censorship, except for SPAM or hate speech.
As in much of your unwarranted beliefs "Joe", so prolifically spread ( like bad manure ), you are completely wrong once again.
Your surety is no replacement for facts and truth.
I've been ousted from CD as recently as today, and almost a dozens times before.
¿ Perhaps your ignorance is only outpaced by your arrogance ?
Namaste
.Just who the heck are you, Joe? You are either a shill for the forum and for the government or you are playing some sort of game with which I am unfamiliar. Noone could possibly be as unconcerned with how much you embarrass yourself here with your fairy tale opinions, endless false assumptions and outright falsehoods without some sort of ulterior motivation.
I apologize for the rudeness of my comment to you but you simply get in the way of intelligent discussion and debate.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I dumped Bank of America four years ago. They are a boil on the north end of a south bound mule in my opinion. I went and found me a small locally owned and operated bank and have been happier ever since. Small locally owned and operated bank are getting hard to find these days. Seems like every time they become popular in a given area some bigger bank buys them out. Hope that doesn't happen to my bank.
Rickster
.I deal almost exclusively with credit unions....check 'em out!
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
As long as outsourcing (and in-sourcing) continue unabated, it will continue to be a race to the the bottom. NAFTA and GATT must be revoked or revised, and immigration brought under control. Otherwise, get used low wages, broken (or no) labor unions, and an ever-accelerating economic descent. Those at the top, presently reaping all the benefits should be warned too that they will not be able to keep or maintain their ill begotten gains forever without paying the price; there will be a backlash. The lessons of history prove this.
Excellent comment.
"News" stories like the one above are naive in the extreme. You think the capitalists care whether you live or die? They read stories like this while laughing all the way to the bank with your money in their pocket. The story of worker rights, over the decades, is written in blood splattered all over the sidewalks: Ford at one point shot dead workers who opposed the company during strikes. Don't think we've come very far: economic inequality today is actually right back to the level it was 80 years ago. And, that circumstance is a key causal factor in the current economic collapse in the U.S. In particular, you can't buy the output if the capitalist routinely steals your funds. That's not to say, by the way, that we should be producing all this crap in the first place. Since when do we need all this trash that's just destroying the environment? Shut the cancerous economic "growth" system down and start from scratch.
K G A I N E R,
Perhaps the naiveté is closer than you think ?
How is it even possible that the corporape of America can continue -- without the implied consent and commercial profits tied to actual people who can or will be "voting with their pocket books" ( for what ever is left to spend ) ?
If nothing else is clear about bu$h!t dumped abundantly into every American's mouth, it is clear that they live and breath … AS IF
_ I M A G E _ I S _ E V E R Y T H I N G _
… ( well almost ) along with _ P R O F I T _.
Capitalists do care about maintaining profitability, and when something obvious contracts and steps upon their LIFE-LINE, it is then a purely Darwinian reaction for SURVIVAL.
Without consumers, corporations are empty buildings, while STILL costing banks millions in lost rent.
It's the people that are always ultimately in charge of their destinies --- it just takes a bit of bubble bursting and economic ruin for the message to eventually seep in --- and then permeate every aspect of America's life !
Namaste
Hopefully, there will be more of these actions. The slogan is catchy, and perfectly encapsulates the plunder of the last couple of months, backed by both parties.
My company is on 4 day weeks and will probably close the last two weeks of December. The "smart money" is we won't make it past January. Its only a few people going on unemployment and losing health insurance, but almost all of our customers have not issued their normal monthly or quarterly orders, have delayed deliveries or canceled orders. The trucks picking up our shipments, usually almost full of skids, are coming in almost empty. Its really getting scary.
Chessgame has it right. Globalization has been abused as a shortcut to profits by short sighted, short term, copycat money grubbers (aka visionary CEOs) almost to the point of no return. While regulators buried their heads in the sand as debt expanded beyond imagination. These factory workers are right. We have all been sold out.
I'm sure no economist, but it seems to me that right now, along with people being rightly worried about spending precious dollars or taking on more debt, commodity deflation and building inventories lead buyers to understand that buying later will likely mean buying cheaper. I would guess (wildly) that in the next few months buying will pick up on ideas that prices have bottomed. Hopefully that will begin better times and if Obama's infrastructure spending is big enough and smart enough then we'll be on a better road. That road will likely eventually lead to inflation, but that's better than depression.
An Injury to One is an Injury to All
Submitted by dickreilly on Sun, 2008-12-07 18:18.
Here's a list of things you can do right now to show solidarity with the Republic Windows and Doors union worker now in their third day of the factory occupation in Chicago.
You can send a solidarity message from your union or community group by emailing: leahfried (at) gmail.com. For more information, call UE at 1- 312-829-8300.
You can sign the youth and student online petition campaign in solidarity with the embattled Republic Windows and Doors workers.
[ http://www.petitiononline.com/solidfac/petition.html ]
You can also join the Jobs with Justice email campaign and send a clear message to the Bank of America by clicking here:
[ http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/ ]
You can help spread the word online by posting corporate and alternativc news updates to your favorite blogs and websites. One place to get continuing updates is the Chicago Indymedia website at:
[ http://chicago.indymedia.org/ ]
You can also join the Facebook group "In Solidarity with the Chicago workers of Republic Windows and Doors here:
[ http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=38839274013&ref=nf ]
busterkikki
To: D. Reilley -- you are on the right track. Working people cannot get the reprieve from hunger and misery by bellyaching about it. You people should read books that describe conditions in the 1880s and '90s to see how workingmen beat the rich and uncaring and won back jobs and self respect. You may think you hate Socialists, but this country escaped a revolution similar to the Russian Revolution by the peaceful means they spelled out for men like Samuel Gompers, Eugene Debs and others who, by ther vows to win peacefully won the admiration and help of many wealthy men, the most important of whom was Clarence Darrow, who nearly went broke by doing it, but brought relief and self-respect back to the workingman, and peaceful leaders of labor, such as Eugene Debs and Samuel Gompers.
Have your anger and get over it. Organize. Strike, if necessary, but always within the law. Walk out, if necessary. Business has to have its workers. Make them get you to work on YOUR terms or on binding arbitration.
Don't just sit there and bellyache. Hold your heads up, organize and fight for your future!
"You may think you hate Socialists"
None hates socialists, you just pity them for being so ignorant, brainwashed and easy to manipulate.
.A cheap and easy criticism that is, in the end, only critical of you for its lack of substance. Why not gain some respect for your position by explaining why it is that you abhor a socialist political solution? You may not even be aware of the successes that several nations around the world have had using the principles of socialism.
What is it about that political philosophy that causes such a knee jerk reaction, I wonder? Is it the free health care to all? Is it the free education through and including graduate school? Free transportation? Limits on profits and insistence on fair wages and benefits? Have you ever been in a socialist state?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Here is where you were "Sold Out". When Bill Clinton was president, Daddy Bush
was promoting "The New World Order". Bill Clinton fell for it as he did not come
from an organized or understanding family that most of us came from.
His mother frequented Race Tracks. His Daddy was not around.
Bill Clinton adopted Nafta, and then pushed it through Congress. His wife Hillary
was very busy outsourcing work to India.
It was the dream of the Republican Party to break unions and reduce our standard
of living to third world countries. With he help and co-operation of Bill Clinton
the Republicans were able to finish the job. They sold-out our industrial base
to China. We no longer produce anything worth anything to other countries, including the launching of a missle to out of space that Bill Clinton gave to China as they did not know how to lift a missle of the ground.
Keep in mind that the Red Chinese gave lots of money to the Clintons.
Bill Clinton from living in Government housing poverty, has become worth maybe
50 million dollars. Why did Saudi Arabia give Clinton $10,000,000 {dollars}??
Why did Corporate America give Clinton another $10,000,000 during the Primary
of Hillary and Obama?
When will our citizens be told the truth? Telling the workers that we have to
be trained for another higher purpose is just so much Bull S...
Workers who took classes for this scam had their jobs outsourced to India by Hillary. No one is talking about the Bush Family ownership of The Carlyle Group
The group that is enjoying Government contracts. Most politicians have been
brainwashed into this new scam, as they are guaranteed a job by the government
with Health benefits and retirement like you cannot imagine.
Polticians are very well organized, we are not, the unions have failed us..
Here is where you were "Sold Out". When Bill Clinton was president, Daddy Bush
was promoting "The New World Order". Bill Clinton fell for it as he did not come
from an organized or understanding family that most of us came from.
His mother frequented Race Tracks. His Daddy was not around.
Bill Clinton adopted Nafta, and then pushed it through Congress. His wife Hillary
was very busy outsourcing work to India.
It was the dream of the Republican Party to break unions and reduce our standard
of living to third world countries. With he help and co-operation of Bill Clinton
the Republicans were able to finish the job. They sold-out our industrial base
to China. We no longer produce anything worth anything to other countries, including the launching of a missle to out of space that Bill Clinton gave to China as they did not know who to lift a missle of the ground.
Keep in mind that the Red Chinese gave lots of money to the Clintons.
Bill Clinton from living in Government housing poverty, has become worth maybe
50 million dollars. Why did Saudi Arabia give Clinton $10,000,000 {dollars}??
Why did Corporate America give Clinton another $10,000,000 during the Primary
of Hillary and Obama?
When will our citizens be told the truth? Telling the workers that we have to
be trained for another higher purpose is just so much Bull S...
Workers who took classes for this scam had their jobs outsourced to India by Hillary. No one is talking about the Bush Family ownership of The Carlyle Group
The group that is enjoying Government contracts. Most politicians have been
brainwashed into this new scam, as they are guaranteed a job by the government
with Health benefits and retirement like you cannot imagine.
Polticians are very well organized, we are not, the unions have failed us..
Both In Canada and the United States , the laws are set up to protect the Creditors rather then the worker in cases of Bankruptcy.
A company that goes under must pay the BANKS before any workers. It my opinion the worker should have first dibs at any monies. It simply inane that a person who might need that money to pay rent or put food on the table for a family comes second to a fat cat banker .
The worker should be considered a secured creditor and paid monies owned before anyone else.
A company director (ceo etc) would not be considered "workers".
That or remove the limited Liability from Corporations and allow the workers to sue the folk the directors and owners for lost wages AS WOULD be the case in a true free market.
PK
ABSOLUTELY right GwNorth! Thank you for stating it so clearly.
In days gone by the factory owners would have sent Pinkerton goons to 'settle' with the workers.
Those days are long gone and now the owners must rely on tax payer provided Government goons.
Studs must be turning in his grave.
"Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees. ........If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."
Bank of America is correct that it is not responsible for Republic's fiancial obligations. On the other hand, we were all led to believe that this "U.S. Taxpayer Bailout Money" to the banks was going to be used to stave off economic disaster in this country. Wow!!!!.....talk about being bamboozled....check out which country is benefiting from some of this $25 BILLION:
http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/2172
This is another nail in the coffin of the U.S. middle class, complements of George W. Bush; Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson; the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
This "TARP" bailout will go down in history as the second LARGEST SCAM ever perpetrated upon the citizens of this country. The first was when Woodrow Wilson approved and signed the Federal Reserve Act.