This Stinks

March 20, 2009

The sheer audacity of AIG is mind boggling. First, AIG's greed and negligence helped bring our entire economy to the brink of failure. Then, you and I and every American each hand them $500 of our hard-earned cash to the tune of $170 billion—and they have the gall to award massive bonuses to their managers. With our money! It makes me sick. The employees receiving these retention bonuses are from the AIG Financial Products division that was actually responsible for its near collapse. Huh? We've let the top managers of a failed company continue to enrich themselves at taxpayers' expense, while the rest of us suffer from the worst economy since the Great Depression. Auto workers, school teachers, public service workers—people like you and me—all across the country have tightened their belts and have been asked to revisit contract language on pay and benefits. President Obama has called this an outrage, saying: "It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" This stinks. The bonuses must be stopped. AFSCME has been a leader in the fight to restrain undeserved CEO pay and to make corporate boards more democratic. Join our campaign to stop the AIG bonuses and get our money back. Send a message to the AIG board and your elected officials in Washington, DC. Tell them to get our money back! No way. No how. No bonuses.