Chamber the Bah-Humbuggiest in JwJ’s Scrooge of the Year

Chamber the Bah-Humbuggiest in JwJ’s Scrooge of the Year

by Mike Hall,

Do you hear chains rattling? That’s the ghost of Christmas Past tracking down the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is the 2009 winner of the annual contest by Jobs with Justice (JwJ) to spotlight the greediest, most cold-hearted organization or person that personifies the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Voters singled out the Chamber for its narrow, radical agenda advocating for anti-worker, profit-focused solutions to the broken health care, labor and environmental systems.

Jobs with Justice Executive Director Sarita Gupta says the Chamber was up against some pretty Scrooge-worthy opponents.

[But] the similarities between Scrooge and the Chamber of Commerce were hard to beat. The ghost of years past would show that the policies they’ve promoted, including deregulation and maximizing profits at the expense of workers, are directly connected to the destruction of America’s middle class.

The Chamber has spent millions of dollars lobbying against legislation that would benefit workers and families—the Employee Free Choice Act, health insurance reform, paid sick days and environmental regulations. Its extreme positions have led some companies and local chapters of the Chamber to disaffiliate from the national group. Says Gupta:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has developed into a front group for a few narrow interests, not a membership association that represents the voice of mainstream American businesses.

Other Scrooge candidates included:

• Bank of America, nominated for its role in the sub-prime lending crisis and failure to extend credit to small businesses.
• Hyatt Hotels for their Scrooge-like firing of 100 housekeepers in Boston and other anti-worker actions.
• Publix Supermarkets for resisting the call to be part of the solution to human rights violations in Florida fields by continuing to buy tomatoes from growers prosecuted for modern-day slavery.
• Student loan lenders Sallie Mae and Citibank for their expensive, variable rate loans for students.
• An impressive write-in campaign also was waged for United Airlines because the company slashed workers’ wages and pensions while continuing to award lavish bonuses to top executives.

The Chamber of Commerce joins an infamous group. Last year’s winner was the entire lot of Wall Street executives whose unchecked corporate greed led to our nation’s economic disaster.