"Piggy" Homebuilders Targeted in Foreclosure Bailout Protest
Thursday, May 1, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Big pink chanting pigs rallied outside the Washington Hilton Hotel
early Wednesday morning to protest billions in handouts to corporate
homebuilders. Serenaded with chants of “corporate welfare on the rise, a bunch
of pigs in disguise” and “off to the trough,” representatives of the
homebuilders industry boarded shuttle buses outside the Hilton to lobby Congress
for passage of the Foreclosure Prevention Act. The Act - currently before the
House - would provide billions in bailout to the homebuilder industry while
giving little relief to homeowners, according to the Laborers International
Union of North America (LIUNA), which coordinated the demonstration. “This
bailout failed to pass the worker smell test,” said Laborers President
Terrence O’Sullivan. “We are stepping up our efforts to make sure Congress
knows this bailout is unacceptable.” LIUNA also ran ads in DC newspapers
Wednesday demanding the House pass real foreclosure prevention that restores
jobs and stabilizes the housing market.
- report/photo
by Andy Richards