Niccollai Re-Affirms Confidence in the Economy’s Eventual Rebound

Speaking to Members at the March 10 Local 464A General Membership Meeting, President John T. Niccollai re-affirmed his belief that the U. S. economy will return to growth. “The actions that President Obama is taking are good for working men and women. I want him to have the opportunity to turn this situation around.”

He went on to say, “It took a long time, under the previous Republican administration of George Bush to bring our economy and the prosperity of America to its current low. Many years with no regulatory controls and a lack of transparency enabled unscrupulous financial and business interests to wreck our financial system. It will take time to correct these wrongs and bring the economy back.”

Niccollai spoke of the reasons for the economic downturn by describing the way that large financial institutions bought, packaged together in huge sums, and then sold home and commercial property mortgages that were not secured by income verification and in some cases, required no down payment. “Now the U. S. Government, and we as taxpayers, must bear the burden of these so-called toxic mortgages.”

He contrasted the lack of business regulation to heavily regulated unions. “Labor unions are closely controlled and regulated. I wonder why the same is not applied to other industries. Everyone who works for a union must account for their time, what they do and how they do it. We have numerous reports such as the LM2 and the 5500 that are used to closely monitor our funds and how they are used. If the same reporting and regulation had been applied to financial institutions we would not find ourselves in the situation we are in today.”

Still, Niccollai sounded a positive note when he told the members, “Fortunately, we work in the food industry. People can cutback on the purchase of many things, such as new cars but they still need to buy food. We can be positive, there will be a turnaround. Prosperity will return for the future.”