SEIU: No Multimillion-Dollar Compensastion Packages for Ken Lewis, Other Big Bank CEOs

October 8, 2009 -- Washington, D.C. -- Today, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) sent a letter to Obama administration pay czar Kenneth Feinberg requesting action to prevent outgoing Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and executives at other banks receiving taxpayer funds from receiving multimillion-dollar retirement, severance, or compensation packages.

"The American people are counting on you to reform the reckless culture of Wall Street that allows bank executives to drive our economy into the ground and walk away with millions," writes SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger in the letter. "You must act now to set a precedent that no bank executive will receive compensation packages until they put policies in place to create jobs, allow homeowners to retain their homes and support state and local governments."

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Bank of America has already received nearly $200 billion in taxpayer-funded bailouts and backstops. And according to a report released by SEIU, once all crisis-related programs are factored in, taxpayers could be on the hook for up to $17.8 trillion to rescue the big banks.

The letter asserts that the enormous public investment taxpayers have made in banks entitles them to demand that no bank executive receive multimillion-dollar retirement, severance, or compensation packages until the bank commits to:

* Stop foreclosures to save Americans' homes and state and local budgets;
* Provide the same affordable loans to state and local governments that the banks receive from the federal government;
* Restore small business lending to save jobs and tax revenue;
* Lower interest rates on consumer credit cards and stop charging abusive overdraft fees that take billions out of consumers' pockets; and
* Allow employees to negotiate compensation practices so they are no longer directly tied to quotas and unreasonable sales goals, targeting consumers with unnecessary or harmful products and amassing consumer debt.

SEIU is asking taxpayers to cosign the letter to Feinberg at www.SEIU.org/stoppayment. This is the latest effort in a yearlong campaign to bring changes at the giant bank. In April, nearly 100,000 taxpayers took action on an SEIU-sponsored campaign to demand that Bank of America fire Ken Lewis and enact reforms to that put homeowners, workers, and America's economic well-being ahead of bonuses, excessive executive compensation, and reckless and predatory banking practices and policies.

Thousands of taxpayers will descend on the American Bankers Association conference in Chicago from October 25 to 27 to take their demands to the big bank CEOs in person.

Source: SEIU