Shame on Schwab (SS Petition/Protest!)

[Triana]

Dear Working Families e-Activist,

What a great job you did last week telling the Charles Schwab
investment firm exactly what you think of their support for the
privatization of Social Security!

On Thursday, in 70 cities all across the country, thousands of
working people demonstrated outside Schwab offices. Wow! And
online activists like you sent nearly 45,000 e-mails (wow,
again!) and phoned Schwab offices with a clear message:
Schwab--Don't Pick Our Pockets to Line Yours.

You see, Charles Schwab, which makes millions handling
retirement savings for working people--is working directly
against our interests by supporting Social Security
privatization--which would cause deep cuts in guaranteed
benefits and put millions of retired workers in poverty.

Let's show Schwab we aren't going away. Please click the
following link to send a fax to a Charles Schwab office near you
telling the investment giant to drop its support for privatizing
Social Security.

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/idaHc5d1Gu4G/

Last week we sure were loud and we sure got enough media
coverage--but we're not going to let up an inch until Schwab
drops their support for the harmful plans to privatize our
Social Security.

Get this: Charles Schwab executives, starting to feel the heat,
claim the firm has "not taken a position" on privatizing Social
Security. Schwab is ashamed of its support for
privatization--and it should be! Privatizing Social Security
would devastate working people, like their clients, by slashing
guaranteed benefits, exploding federal debt and opening Social
Security up to political corruption and Enron-ization--while
handing billions in fees to companies like Schwab that would
manage privatized accounts. So Schwab wants us to believe it's
just an innocent bystander in the attack on retirement security.

Shame on Schwab. Here's the truth:

* Schwab is a member of the Alliance for Worker Retirement
Security (AWRS), the leading business-backed lobbying group
supporting Social Security privatization. AWRS's very first
principle for Social Security reform is the creation of
privatized accounts.

* Schwab has funded the Cato Institute, a longtime proponent of
Social Security privatization.

* Schwab has a leadership role in the Securities Industry
Association--another big supporter of privatizing Social
Security.

* Schwab has been a player in strategy sessions with White House
officials.

* Schwab's chief investment strategist, Liz Ann Sonders,
endorsed private accounts, and published reports say so has
Charles Schwab, the CEO himself.

Please take a minute right now to fax a Charles Schwab office
near you with this message: Shame on you, Charles Schwab. Drop
your support for privatizing Social Security now. Click here:

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/idaHc5d1Gu4G/

Other investment groups--Edward Jones and Waddell & Reed, for
example--heard their clients and other working families when we
demanded they drop support for Social Security privatization.
They pulled out of the pro-privatization lobbying groups. It's
time for Schwab to do the same--and to put the financial
interests of its clients and other working families above its
own greed for those privatized account management fees.

Once you have sent your fax to a Charles Schwab office, please
click the following link and urge other people concerned about
retirement security to fax Charles Schwab as well. Click here:

http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/i7aHc5d1Gu4F/

Thank you for working so hard to strengthen Social Security and
stop privatization.

In solidarity,

Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
April 4, 2005

Visit The Union Shop:
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/i1aHc5d1Gu4H/