Sheet Metal Workers International Association Joins Occupy Wall Street Movement

WASHINGTON, Oct. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Formed in 1888, the Sheet Metal Workers' International Association (SMWIA) was born in an era that saw America dominated by wealthy big money interests. It was a time when not a single banker or corporate executive was punished for behavior that saw families destroyed, thrown out of their homes and penniless while workers were arrested for the simple act of standing up for their First Amendment rights.

Because of the efforts of the working people who founded the Labor Movement and our Union, later generations saw a country that included social and economic reform that created the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world while opening doors to economic opportunity for millions of Americans families.

Unfortunately, the days that spurned working people to take to the streets are back. And this Union, like previous generations of sheet metal workers and today's Wall Street occupiers, will rise up to the challenge.

The SMWIA supports the Wall Street Occupiers across the country and believes that:

• Wall Street and corporate America must again invest in America with close to $3 trillion in cash they have on hand, and use it to create good jobs here and not abroad in low wage countries that have built their economies by destroying American jobs.
• The current wave of foreclosures must be stopped.  Banks have received bail out money from the American taxpayer/worker and in turn foreclosed on the American worker, now these same corporate crooks have double-downed and hit the American worker again with outlandish fees and service charges. Banks should write down the 14 million mortgages that are underwater, stop the more than 10 million pending foreclosures, and put an end to the deterioration of the American housing markets.  
• New jobs should be funded with a fair tax structure. The same Wall Street gangs that destroyed the American economy benefit from a tax system that sees them pay less in taxes as a percentage of their income as does a sheet metal worker struggling to put food on the table for his or her family. A fair tax system that sees millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share would raise hundreds of billions in badly needed revenue. This would fund education and create jobs rebuilding our nation's crumbling infrastructure while protecting the dignity and retirement security of millions of Americans who have already paid into Social Security and Medicare.

Our vision will not come true unless Americans from all walks of life begin by coming together and shedding light on the Wall Street practices that crashed our nation's economy. Today, we pledge to take the first step in a long march towards a better America for current and future working Americans.  Our march will end when Congress and corporate America lives up to its responsibility to do what's right for the common good of all.  

The SMWIA, an international labor union with membership in the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labour Congress, provides policy direction and program support on behalf of its membership in maintaining the union's jurisdiction over various types of sheet metal and related work in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico through 151 local unions.  SMWIA members provide skilled services to the sheet metal and air conditioning industry, other metal-related manufacturing and service operations, and the transportation industry in both freight/commuter railroads and shipyards.

Contact:
Paul Pimentel
Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, AFL-CIO
[email protected]
Mobile:  202-812-8159

SOURCE Sheet Metal Workers' International Association, AFL-CIO