News & Events
Nurses across Michigan join national call for Wall Street tax to heal Main Street
09.01.2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2011
CONTACT: Dawn Kettinger, 517-614-6810
Politicians should stop putting greedy corporations before workers
Nurses in four Michigan cities joined their counterparts in 20 other states today in a national Day of Action to demand that members of Congress put our state’s working men and women ahead of the greedy corporations that ruined our economy. The Michigan Nurses Association members are calling for a Main Street Contract for the American People to heal the damage that Wall Street has done to our families and communities.
“There is something fundamentally wrong when the working men and women who built this state suffer while greedy corporations cash in on record profits,” said John Karebian, executive director of the Michigan Nurses Association. “Nurses see the damage caused by our broken government in their patients’ everyday lives, and they know that no Band-Aid can fix the wounds that Wall Street has inflicted on Main Street. It’s time to make those corporations give back some of the wealth they took from the people of America and invest it in the jobs, education, health care and the secure retirement that everyone deserves.”
The Michigan nurses, in conjunction with National United Nurses, are demanding that our federal legislators tax Wall Street to fund programs that will create good-paying jobs and rebuild our communities. A sales tax of less than 1 percent on all major Wall Street financial activity, such as billion-dollar gambling on dividends and futures, would raise hundreds of billions of dollars.
Nurses have asked each Michigan member of Congress to pledge support for the tax and a Main Street Contract for the American People, which calls for:
- Jobs at living wages to reinvest in America.
- Equal access to quality, public education.
- Guaranteed health care with a single standard of care.
- A secure retirement with the ability to retire in dignity.
- Good housing and protection from hunger.
- A safe and healthy environment.
- A just taxation system where corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share.
As they spread their message today, the nurses held soup kitchens in Marquette, Jackson and Muskegon. In Mt. Pleasant, they held a food drive outside the stadium during a Central Michigan University football game tailgate.
The demand for a Main Street Contract for the American People comes as former Congressman Pete Hoekstra, a candidate for the U.S. Senate from Michigan, called Monday for a repeal of Wall Street reform that is putting greedy corporations in check.
“Our neighbors and family members continue to struggle, and we have to ask our leaders in Washington whose side they’re on – do they serve corporations or do they serve the people?” said Bonnie Nesbit, a Muskegon registered nurse who works at Mercy Health Partners and is vice president of the Michigan Nurses Association. “The pain we’re seeing in Michigan was caused by the out-of-control banks and billionaires who got bailouts and tax breaks. While their CEOs got bonus checks, our workers got pink slips. While they went home to mansions, our families lost their houses. Wall Street and the wealthy have done nothing but take and take. It’s time for them to pay.”
The campaign for a Main Street Contract for Michigan:
fightformainstreet.org
The Main Street Contract Legislator Pledge
Members of the Michigan Nurses Association have asked every U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator representing Michigan residents to sign the following Main Street Contract pledge:
“I pledge to support a Wall Street Transaction Tax that will raise sufficient revenue to make Wall Street pay for the devastation it has caused on Main Street, and to reclaim the American dream with good jobs, healthcare for all, quality education, housing, protection from hunger, and a secure retirement for all.”
