AFL-CIO president calls for new financial regulations

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Tuesday called for the creation of a new agency to specifically address systemic risk in the nation's financial system.

Trumka spoke today outside the meeting of the American Bankers Association in Chicago, where a number of labor unions rallied in support of new government regulation of the banking sector. He called the Obama administration's move to cut executive pay a "good start" and called for it to "bring on the rest."

"We are here to support President Obama's call for tough new regulations to force these bankers out of their Wild West mentality, out of their arrogance, out of their contempt for the public they’re supposed to serve," he said. "We are not going to let bankers rule our lives or our country."

Trumka endorsed a number of proposals including a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, cuts in executive bonuses, corporate governance reform, increased regulation of systemic risk, and regulation of the derivatives market. 

The House Financial Services Committee took one of the first steps in enacting such reform, passing new regulations of derivatives trading earlier this month. 

Trumka called on the bankers to stop spending money lobbying against reform.

"We didn’t put you back in business so you could pile money and lobbyists into Capitol Hill to fight the financial reform we so desperately need-while we’re...losing it all-because you treated the money we worked so hard to earn like Monopoly money," he said, referring to the last year's financial bailouts.

He said that the new measures were necessary because the economy has "been all but destroyed" because bankers turned the it into their "own private casino." Trumka placed the blame on the industry for a litany of causes of last year's financial crises such as the mortgage crises and the collapse of the derivatives market.

"We have to build a whole new [economy] based on good jobs, not on bad debt with America investing in and exporting technology and world-class products, not financial crisis; where hard work is rewarded, not colossal failure," he said.

Trumka gave brief lip service to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would allow workers to unionize by signing a card instead of holding a majority vote.

"[We need a new model] where workers have a real voice because they have the freedom to have a union if they want one," he said.

EFCA has been put on the back-burner in Congress with healthcare reform, financial regulations, and cap-and-trade legislation being pushed to the forefront.