Laborers Protest Handouts for Housing Industry Today
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
With the housing crisis still in full swing and hundreds of thousands of
construction workers out of work, members of the Laborers' International Union
of North America (LIUNA) will rally early
this morning at the Washington Hilton Hotel to protest billions in proposed
corporate handouts to the homebuilders' industry. "Through their subprime and
high-risk mortgage lending subsidiaries, corporate home builders helped create
the current crisis which has contributed to the loss of 359,000 construction
jobs since 2007," says LIUNA. Their actions "have also contributed to as many as
3 million Americans facing foreclosure and the loss of nearly $1 trillion in
investment value, weakening workers' retirement security." LIUNA is targeting
the homebuilder industry during their visit to DC to lobby Congress for passage
of the Foreclosure Prevention Act. The Act - already approved by the Senate -
would provide billions to the homebuilder industry and is expected to be taken
up by the House in the coming weeks. Today's rally follows similar events across
the country and coincides with the launch of a media campaign demanding the
House reject corporate handouts and create legislation that helps workers and
homebuilders. In a related development, the Washington Business Journal reported
Monday that the Metro-DC area saw a rise in foreclosures over the past
months.