(The following story by Timothy Spence appeared on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer website on April 1.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — AFL-CIO President John Sweeney yesterday accused the Bush administration of seeking to “cut the guts out of Social Security” and urged stockbrokers and bankers to oppose the White House push to create private Social Security investment accounts.
Leaders of organized labor in more than 70 cities planned demonstrations as the administration marked the 28th day of its two-month nationwide campaign to rally support for its plan.
AFL-CIO officials called their nationwide protest the biggest action the 13 million-member union federation has ever held on a single issue.
Sweeney walked the four blocks from the union’s headquarters near the White House to an office of the Charles Schwab investment firm and to a nearby branch of Wachovia Bank to urge both companies to oppose the Bush plan. Both Schwab and Wachovia support an organization, the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, which was organized to work for the White House plan.
Sweeney, speaking to a lunchtime crowd chanting “Don’t personalize Social Security” and “Shame on Schwab,” told his listeners: “Our message is this: Don’t try to pick our pockets so you can line yours.”
Sweeney and some 200 demonstrators then crossed K Street, home for major lobbying and law firms, to repeat their chants in front of a Wachovia branch. The company, based in Charlotte, N.C., is the nation’s third-largest full-service brokerage firm and the fourth-largest bank.
“We want Schwab and Wachovia and Wall Street to know they will not get away with it,” he said. “We’re going to put private accounts right where they belong: in the Dumpster of our democracy.”
Speaking earlier as he marched in front of the Schwab office, Sweeney said the 70-city rally was “an indication of how the average American is concerned about what this administration is trying to do. They want to cut the guts out of Social Security.”
Alison Wertheim, a spokeswoman for Charles Schwab, the financial services giant based in San Francisco, said the company supported groups on both sides of the Social Security debate. “We want to ensure that we have access to the discussion, a seat at the table.”
Carrie Ruddy, vice president for corporate communications for Wachovia, said the company’s affiliation with the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security does not mean Wachovia endorses individual accounts.
“Wachovia believes in the fundamental importance of Social Security and we think that action to strengthen the system is absolutely necessary,” Ruddy said in Charlotte. “We encourage Congress to consider ways to expand retirement savings opportunities for all Americans.”
The Alliance for Worker Retirement Security has come under fire in the past, and another brokerage house, Edward Jones & Co., withdrew its support after the labor federation protested.
Beth Solomon, a spokeswoman for the alliance, said the publicity created by opposition to the Bush plan has helped its membership. “When you do this kind of billy-club politics, people react to that and a lot of times it strengthens the resolve of the people who are seeking change and progress,” she said.
Bush wants to change the Social Security program to allow workers to divert up to one-third of their Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts that would include a mix of stock and fixed-income funds. The higher yields earned on mutual funds would more than offset the reduction in the traditional guaranteed benefit that Social Security provides, Bush supporters say.
The union demonstrations coincided with the White House push to support its Social Security plan. Treasury Secretary John Snow told high school students in Bismarck, N.D., that investment accounts would help provide a more secure retirement for future generations.
Opinion polls continue to show a nation divided and there has been lukewarm support in Congress to alter the 70-year-old system that currently provides benefits to more than 47 million people.