Jobs with Justice and Teamsters Union Call for ‘People’s Bailout’ at KeyBank Branches Around the Nation
December 19, 2008
Community organizations tell KeyBank to stop financing Oak Harbor Freight Lines’ war on workers
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Members of Jobs with Justice and the Teamsters Union demonstrated across the country at KeyBank branches in Portland, Seattle, Indianapolis, Detroit, Buffalo and Cleveland to call for a “People’s Bailout” and an end to the misuse of taxpayer bailout dollars to fund companies, like Oak Harbor, that have perpetrated workers’ rights violations.
KeyBank is set to receive $2.5 billion from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP). But instead of using the money to give relief to those hardest hit in the current economy, KeyBank is using its bailout money to increase profits by buying other banks and underwriting Oak Harbor Freight Lines, a company that has cancelled its retirees’ health care and violated U.S. and international labor standards affecting hundreds of striking Teamsters in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
“KeyBank’s irresponsible decisions are putting working families in a bind,” said
Debbie Kline, Coordinator of
Cleveland Jobs with Justice, where KeyBank is headquartered. “At this moment of crisis, KeyBank needs to extend relief to working Americans — not finance a rogue company like Oak Harbor that has broken U.S. labor laws and violated international labor standards during a three month strike in the Northwest.”
“Six hundred freight drivers and clerical workers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho are out in the cold this holiday season,” said
Al Hobart, Western Regional Vice President of the Teamsters. “Major retailers like the GAP and JC Penney have left Oak Harbor, but KeyBank continues to underwrite them and these labor violations. This is a national scandal that KeyBank is misusing its bailout money and Congress should do something about it.”
Founded in 1903, the Teamsters Union represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women in the United States and Canada.
SOURCE International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Source: newswire
