(from the Sheet Metal Workers International www.smwia.org)

The A.F.L.-C.I.O. announced on Wednesday that it will sponsor two “Weeks of Action” including demonstrations in 200 cities against the nation’s major banks.

The demonstrations will be held from March 15 through March 30 with the slogan  “Good Jobs Now, Make Wall Street Pay.”

The demonstrations will have three goals: getting banks to pay their fair share, getting banks to stop fighting tougher new banking regulations and getting banks to lend more to “Main Street” and small businesses in order to boost jobs in the current difficult economy.

The rallies and protests will take place at branches and office of Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, to name a few.   

According to Vincent Panvini, SMWIA Director of Political and Government Affairs, “the people who put us in this mess and killed millions of jobs ought to be funding the creation of millions of new jobs.” 

Organized labor will call for a “speculative” tax on short-term financial transactions, a tax that could raise $400 billion a year and would discourage a short-term investment mentality.

The labor movement is also calling for imposing  higher taxes on banker’ bonuses and on the large incomes of hedge fund executives.