SEIU launches 'Keep America Working' hotline, Web site to support workers and small business owners

http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2009m5d14-SEIU-launches-Keep-America-Working-to-support-workers-and-small-business-owners?cid=examiner-email

The Service Employees International Union launched a toll-free hotline and Web site -- Keep America Working – today to support small business owners and workers facing job loss because of frozen credit and liquidation at the hands of bailed out banks. The new hotline number is 877-286-1Job and will be open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT, and the new website is www.keepworkinghotline.org.

As we've seen just this week, nearly 1,000 workers at two Hart Schaffner & Marx (Hartmarx) factories voted to "sit in" to save their jobs from liquidation by bailout recipient Wells Fargo. In response to the growing "sit in" phenomenon, SEIU created this hotline and Web site to provide a voice for workers and small businesses similarly trapped by the reckless lending of bailout recipient banks.

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Big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo received hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailout funds so they could remain solvent and start lending again to get the economy moving. Instead, they're freezing loans and putting small businesses in danger of closing. As the unemployment rate soars to over 8.9 percent, workers and businesses need a voice to hold bailout recipient banks accountable for irresponsible financing practices.

"Big banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo need to stop trampling on hardworking Americans and small business owners," said SEIU President Andy Stern. "Liquidating small businesses is a far cry from putting the economy back on track. It's time big banks make good on their promise to restore lending and become partners, not adversaries."