The eight million job losses during the Great Recession triggered by the 2008 financial crisis had a devastating impact on working families and underlined the need for effective regulation of Wall Street. Recent studies point out that the growing power of finance drives inequality and the shrinking portion of wealth that goes to wages. With this in mind, the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO – the nation’s largest labor coalition –  reaffirmed its commitment to reforming the financial system, including protecting the progress won  in the Dodd-Frank Act.

The statement also calls for further changes that go beyond the Dodd-Frank Act – including shrinking the excessive size of the megabanks, establishing a Wall Street speculation tax, and reinstating Glass-Stegall separations between commercial and investment banking – in order to do more to end the excessive risks that the financial sector poses to the rest of the economy. The AFL-CIO’s commitment to Wall Street reform has been a crucial factor in the gains that reformers have made so far and its engagement will be a crucial factor in future progress.

— Marcus Stanley