Laborers Protest Handouts for Housing Industry Today

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
With the housing crisis still in full swing and hundreds of thousands of construction workers out of work, members of the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) will rally early this morning at the Washington Hilton Hotel to protest billions in proposed corporate handouts to the homebuilders' industry. "Through their subprime and high-risk mortgage lending subsidiaries, corporate home builders helped create the current crisis which has contributed to the loss of 359,000 construction jobs since 2007," says LIUNA. Their actions "have also contributed to as many as 3 million Americans facing foreclosure and the loss of nearly $1 trillion in investment value, weakening workers' retirement security." LIUNA is targeting the homebuilder industry during their visit to DC to lobby Congress for passage of the Foreclosure Prevention Act. The Act - already approved by the Senate - would provide billions to the homebuilder industry and is expected to be taken up by the House in the coming weeks. Today's rally follows similar events across the country and coincides with the launch of a media campaign demanding the House reject corporate handouts and create legislation that helps workers and homebuilders. In a related development, the Washington Business Journal reported Monday that the Metro-DC area saw a rise in foreclosures over the past months.