ohio jobs march hits at wall street's greed

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Submitted by: Bruce Bosick and Jason Perlman

“Hey, hey, ho, ho, Wall St. greed’s gotta go,” “People’s needs, not Wall St. greed,” & “We need JOBS, now,” echoed off buildings in downtown Columbus, as hundreds braved the latest snowstorm to march to the Ohio State Capital building, calling for jobs and relief for working families. Activists and concerned Ohioans formed at the corner of Main Street and High Streets in the bitter cold, high winds and snow to show America’s middle class is getting the short end of the stick as Wall Street continues to get fat.

“It’s a great day to fight for working families,” thundered Ohio AFL-CIO President Joe Rugola, to the cheers of hundreds at the March for Jobs in Columbus, Ohio on Thursday. “It’s snowing here and they’re sitting up there in Wall St., nice and warm. But I’ll tell you, it’s going to get a whole lot hotter there, as we organize and fight for jobs and security for working families here in America!”

Mary Young, an unemployed sheet metal worker joined the nearly one hundred because she knows the time is now to help restore America, one middle class family at a time.

“I came to the march to fight for jobs, for me, but especially for our families,” said Young. “I’ve worked four months in the last two years, and had to go to Tennessee to even get part time work. It’s ridiculous! These billionaires just take more and more and more from working folks. Even when they hire a few, they won’t hire the women.”

The Columbus March for Jobs is expected to be just the first of many, according to Working America Director, Dan Heck.

“We’re working with others, building committees to work for jobs,” Heck said, but we felt we just had to begin to go public. “People are mad, and they should be. We just felt like we’d start the ball rolling.”

The jobs march was sponsored by Working America, Ohio & Columbus AFL-CIO bodies, Progress Ohio, SOAR and Jobs with Justice. These groups are part of the core forces that are setting up a Jobs for America Now Organizing Committee in Columbus.

“Don’t believe them when they tell you it’s about government spending, its not. It is about corporate greed, plain & simple,” shouted State Representative Dan Stewart (D-25), to loud cheers. “We have millions out of work, people are suffering, but CEOs now are averaging over 400 times the pay of workers. Billionaires are bailed out, but our people starve! The five biggest insurance companies made $12 billion in profits this year. They didn’t make that providing health care to people, they did it my denying health care to people, throwing people off of health care coverage. This must end! We need good jobs & health care for our people again!”

Marie Fetters is a township trustee from rural Wayne County, but drove through the snow to participate in the march at the state capital. “Wayne County is farm country,” she said, “but we’re not immune. They just closed the DHC plant, throwing hundreds out of work. We need jobs, too.”

Tim Burga, Chief of Staff of the Ohio AFL-CIO, was introduced as “Our local celebrity,” after right-wing talk show jock Rush Limbaugh had recently attacked him as a “Union thug” on his national program.

“Rush certainly appears to be worried about what we’re doing here, and he damned well ought to be. It’s the corporate thieves that pay his way that we’re going after,” Burga said, to the cheers of the crowd. “They’re getting richer and our people are without work or aid. We’re here to demand Good Jobs Now!”

Two men were dressed in suits, sunglasses and cigars playing the role on Lehman Brothers and other Wall Street big shots. The carried Monopoly games and passed out fake money because it seems those that are rich have the money to throw around while the workers in Ohio and across this nation continue to struggle to keep their heads above water.

“We just felt like its Monopoly money to the big CEOs,” said Stan Osei-Bonsu. “We’ve lost over a quarter of all manufacturing jobs in our entire nation, but the CEO of Lehman Brothers takes home $484 million. Man, that’s obscene! That’s Monopoly money!”

While we continue to hear why we don’t have jobs, such as proper education and training, we continue to see the jobs we do have get sent overseas so corporations can make record profits. Some people say about those jobs going overseas and companies getting rich that, “It is the American Way.” But when did the American way become un-American? While we continue to worry about terror attacks from across the sea, American workers are being assaulted every day right here at home as CEO after CEO cut their jobs for nothing more that more money.

“We need real jobs, not make believe money and make believe jobs,” Jihad Seifullah chimed in. “They keep talking about education, training, like that is supposed to bring in jobs. I’m trained! I’m educated,” he said, “but we need real jobs.”

As the election of 2010 roles closer, it becomes even more important to remember who and where we need to focus our frustration. Republican candidate for Governor John Kasich worked and profited heavily with Lehman Brothers and made money hand over fist while he watched Ohioans lose job, homes and families.

Senate candidate Rob Portman said he would vote against the HIRE Act, which current Senator George Voinovich voted for, which would directly help small business and provide jobs. Portman says no to Ohio’s workers and small business, but he is happy to accept over $160,000 in Wall Street endorsements. According to campaign finance records, Portman has accepted $160,850 in campaign contributions from the PACs and employees of Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, UBS, AIG, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, Capital One, Bank of New York Mellon and Wachovia.