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It seems that another bank on the public dole is using its taxpayer-subsidized time and resources to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act.
Today, Sam Stein of the Huffington Post reports that Citigroup hosted a private conference call yesterday to bolster opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act that included a senior executive at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business lobbying group that has put tens of millions of dollars into the anti-Employee Free Choice disinformation campaign. Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake notes that the Citi stock analyst who downgraded Wal-Mart over fears of the Employee Free Choice Act passing was on the call, too.
Citigroup, the Huffington Post reports, has received some $50 billion in federal bailout funds—funds that are meant, in theory, to shore up the financial system, not allow Big Business to continue to distort the political process and lobby against critical legislation.
Dan Pedrotty, director of the AFL-CIO Office of Investment, says that Citigroup’s taking taxpayer dollars while inserting themselves into the political process is hypocritical.
Everyone should recognize that when we are talking about Citigroup here, the emperor has no clothes. You have a company surviving on taxpayer largess weighing in against workers who want to improve their lives.
Citigroup isn’t the first bailed-out bank to put resources into lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act. Last year, Bank of America—shortly after being approved for billions in taxpayer bailout funds—hosted a conference call in which Employee Free Choice Act opponents insisted (possibly illegally) that those listening in should donate to anti-worker Senate candidates and anti-union front groups.
By taking public bailout funds while trying to block vital legislation for working families, Citigroup is betraying taxpayers and showing their desperation to keep the corporate-dominated status quo rather than give bargaining power back to workers.
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