Workers from Wisconsin will be joined by New York firefighters, construction workers, public employees, and other union and community supporters in a demonstration in front of the Marshall and Ilsley (M&I) Shareholders’ Meeting on Tuesday May 17th at 12 noon (at the NY Marriott Marquis, Times Square Manhattan).
M&I Bank moved its shareholders’ meeting from Milwaukee to New York City to try to avoid protests by Wisconsin citizens. M&I executives donated at least $46,361 to Scott Walker during the 2010 election and have donated $347,148 since 2000 to the
Wisconsin GOP politicians who helped Walker push his anti-worker
measures.
The M & I Bank received a $1.75 billion bailout from the Troubled Asset Relief Program of which $1.3 billion still has not been returned to taxpayers. By agreeing to have the M & I Bank acquired by the Bank of Montreal (BMO), M & I executives will receive $71 million compensation payments when M&I is acquired by BMO later this year. Thus the same executives who are financing the right-wing attack on unions are brazenly circumventing the law that prohibits bonuses to bank executives until the TARP funds are repaid.
Anearlier article in Talking Union reports on the action of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO closing its account at the M&I Bank in protest.