Sunday, December 21, 2008

You Can Bank on Job Cuts

Didn't they get bailout money?

"Sovereign, Citizens plan job cuts; Analyst says loss of 1,900 positions is in line with other banks" by Ross Kerber, Globe Staff | December 20, 2008

Two of the largest banks in Massachusetts yesterday said they will be making deep job cuts - 1,900 positions in all - with both citing a weak economy that has already led to sharp employment losses at rivals.

The cuts at Sovereign Bank and Citizens Bank parent Citizens Financial Group will be across operations concentrated in Northeastern states.... RBC Capital Markets bank analyst Gerard Cassidy said yesterday's disclosed cuts were in line with steps taken by larger banks as they reduce their balance sheets by writing off bad loans and slowing the pace of new ones....

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And look at what we found under a snow pile today (only in the paper because it is immigrants, I think):


"Protesters call on Bank of America to curb post-foreclosure evictions" by John M. Guilfoil, Globe Correspondent | December 21, 2008

Some two dozen protesters braved subzero windchills yesterday in Dorchester to send a message to Bank of America.

The global warming protest was cancelled!!!

<:-) (brrrrrr)

In front of the bank's Fields Corner branch, activists carried signs and chanted "Housing is a human right" while calling on Bank of America and its subsidiary Countrywide Financial to stop post-foreclosure evictions. The protesters, led by Jamaica Plain-based advocacy group City Life/Vida Urbana, are calling on banks to renegotiate bad mortgages or allow foreclosed homeowners to pay rent to the bank to stay in their homes.

Here's an idea: STOP MAKING PAYMENTS to BoA!!

Oh, right, that's how Blago got into trouble!

"It is time to mobilize the country behind programs that save the livelihood and promotes the welfare of all of us, not just Wall Street bankers," said Grace Ross of the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, who supported the protest, in a statement.

Well, I agree with that! Pitchfork at the ready!!

"A genuine rescue plan does not allow massive layoffs. It does not allow evictions of people who are doing their best to pay their mortgages or make their rental payments. Rather, it invests in the lives of people as the strategy to pull our country out of the hard times that are upon us."

The group has been advocating for Paula Taylor, who made news in September when City Life protesters were arrested as she was being evicted from her Roxbury home after a yearlong struggle with Bank of America. Steve Meacham, a City Life community organizer, said yesterday that more protests at Bank of America branches are planned.

Then I EXPECT to see them in the PAPER!!!

Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said that foreclosures are costly for everyone involved, and that Bank of America takes them "very seriously." "Once Fannie Mae [releases its full list of changes], we will review our policies and procedures," Bauwens said about the bank's policy on post-foreclosure evictions.

City Life is lobbying Beacon Hill for a moratorium on so-called "underwater foreclosures," in which the value of a home has sunk below the amount owed on it. At the end of the demonstration, protesters delivered a letter to the bank branch manager detailing their demands.

Did they unzip his fly and blow, too?

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