Finance Sector Union Condemns Westpac Which "Lets 500 Staff Go" While Profits Soar To $4 Billion In Last 6 Months!
Written by: Ned K. on 18 June 2023
While workers struggle to cope with the impact of rising interest rates, Westpac has sacked 500 workers in the last two weeks and says it will "let go" another 116 workers in coming months.
"Letting go" is the big banks and other corporate giants' euphemism for sacking workers and throwing them on the unemployment scrap heap of capitalism.
The Finance Sector Union national secretary, Julia Angrisano's statement said, "Westpac is wallowing in record profits on the back of mortgage interest rate rises but that hasn't stopped its insatiable appetite for job cuts."
The sackings come at the same time as Westpac increased its half year profits by 22% to the amount of $4 billion.
No doubt Westpac and the other big three banks will say that their profits are distributed to shareholders and to repay money borrowed from overseas banks. However, most of the shareholders are big corporations and very little of the big banks’ profits end up with mum and dad shareholders or modest income self-funded retirees.
In the late 1940s there was an attempt by popular demand to nationalize big banks.
The High Court ruled that this was not allowed under the Australian Constitution.
This showed how much the Constitution served the interests of the corporate ruling class rather than the people when it was made.
Nationalizing the big four banks is needed as part of securing an independent financial sector which puts people's financial needs before profits.
Nationalizing the banks as a demand on the federal government will have popular support.
Print Version - new window Email article
-----
Go back
Independence from Imperialism
People's Rights & Liberties
Community and Environment
Marxism Today
International
Articles
Woolworths Warehouse Workers' Strike Shows Strength of United Workers |
NSW Teachers Win New Award |
Book Review: Nature, Culture and Inequality |
Meat…the worker! |
Australia not so lucky country for migrant workers |
SA Ambo’s election shows workers want their unions to fight regardless of who holds office |
Workers' Struggle Goes Well Beyond "Protected Industrial Action" |
"When we stand together as the working class, our victory is assured” — ‘Line in the Sand’ rally, Melbourne, 18 September. |
All power to construction workers : CFMEU Sydney Rally |
Support grows for CFMEU |
CEPU exercises right-to-disconnect |
Book Review: The Invisible Doctrine - The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How it Came to Control Your Life) |
What do wine industry and early childhood education workers have in common? |
“We’re fighting for something that’s so much bigger, so much bigger than any one person.”; Nine workers on five-day strike. |
Why is it so hard to get by? |
Class struggle at nuclear submarine site |
Save the nation’s natural resources for the people |
We swim in a toxic sea of capitalism. But we needn’t drown: Humphrey McQueen’s powerful new pamphlet on Capital launched |
Workers Take Action at Osborne Naval Base in South Australia |
What is this economic crisis? |
-----