Unions get ready for Wall St. reform when Congress returns

Unions and their allies are amping up for a new campaign targeting big banks in a push for financial regulatory reform.

Later this month, protests are being planned for across the country, targeting major financial institutions like Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Activists will also descend upon Washington, primarily K Street, to protest bank lobbyists in May. Labor groups will be joined by veterans’ groups and religious clergy in the protests at bank branches and bank shareholder meetings.

The rallies will coincide with Congress returning from the Easter next week and preparing to finish up work on reforms for Wall Street before the year is out.

Anna Burger, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, blamed the economic recession on the “greedy actions of the financial industry.”

“We need Congress to pass strong Wall Street reforms this spring and we need to hold these banks accountable,” Burger said on a conference call with reporters Thursday.

Protests against banks will be held in San Francisco, Kansas City, Charlotte and on Wall Street itself in late April. Organizers are also planning a massive protest on K Street on May 17, rallying against the intensive lobbying by financial firms against reform legislation. The rallies are a follow-up to a protest centered on the American Bankers Association convention in Chicago last year.

Burger also had particular harsh words for Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who has defended executives’ bonuses on Wall Street and is considered close to the Obama administration.

“Jamie Dimon is leading the PR campaign to rebrand Wall Street,” Burger said. “His bank was one of the leading players in the housing crisis.”

Unions in particular are going after bankers’ bonus pay.

Next week, the AFL-CIO will be releasing an update of its Executive PayWatch website. It focus on six major banks — Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase — that have received government assistance in the past, detailing their bonus pay and lobbying spending.