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protestors stand outside the US Steel Tower

On April 16th a coalition of Pittsburghers fed up with corporations who do not pay their fair share descended on the US Steel tower to demand a conversation with UPMC’s CEO Jeffery Romoff.

UPMC is the second largest private employer and the largest private landowner in Allegheny County. It would have reported taxable income in the range of $471 million were it a for-profit company.

However, it is a non-profit company with the benefit of dodging $204 million in taxes from its property, income, and interest rate payments on bonds.

The protest, hosted by Pittsburgh United and supported by One Pittsburgh, intended to present CEO Jeffery Romoff, who is paid $4 million a year himself [1], with a “tax bill” listing the money owed to the city of Pittsburgh in lieu the services to the city it has not performed as a non-profit.

Because it is not required to pay taxes, there is the belief that UPMC should serve the community to the fullest extent. UPMC arguably does not do all that it can for Pittsburgh in a time of high unemployment and ailing education and transportation budgets – a time when help is needed the most from a so-called charitable organization.

It has shown that it is unwilling to keep hospitals open [2], that it is instead willing to spend millions of dollars in advertising and the building of facilities in the suburbs to drive out rival hospitals that serve the area already [3], and that it has no problem compensating its executives with salaries in the millions.

Its behavior strongly suggests that it instead operates implicitly as a for-profit corporation, and thus many people believe that it should be taxed so the money can be best served for the people of the city. If UPMC paid taxes, it would still have had $267 million in “profits” left over – an impressive haul for a non-profit.

The protest started at the Wood Street Station, evoking the tax money that could be used to fund our transit system in a time when budget cuts are crippling service. From there, it moved through the streets to the US Steel tower, now branded by UPMC to show their dominance over the city.

After peaceably assembling on the steps outside, security would not allow a small group of people to talk to Jeffery Romoff, instead insuring that “somebody” would come speak. Shockingly, no UPMC figure came down to talk to the group.

Still, as a strong sentiment grows against those of our society that do not pay their fair show, UPMC will not be able to avoid the 99% of Pittsburgh. As the protest concluded several speakers repeated that we WILL be back and that UPMC will sooner or later have to account for its actions.

[1] http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/upmc-ceos-pay-twice-wpahs-chiefs-297660/
[2] http://www.wtae.com/news/21313350/detail.html
[3] http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/life/sally-kalson/is-there-a-doctor-in-the-house-231354/?p=1

One Pittsburgh protests across from the William Penn hotel

On Tuesday, April 10, BNY Mellon held their annual shareholder meeting at the William Penn Hotel. This year their meeting was anything but run of the mill. Typically, the meeting only lasts for 30 minutes as shareholders listen to recommendations from the board and take a vote. By the time the meeting is taking place most of the votes have already been cast, so the meeting itself is little more than pomp and circumstance. This year, however, One Pittsburgh forced BNY Mellon’s CEO to explain itself.

Activists gathered outside the opulent William Penn just before the 9am meeting, while our community shareholders filed into the shareholder meeting itself. Marching through the William Penn and demanding that the huge bank pay its fair share, we signaled that the day would not be business as usual. And indeed, upstairs on the 17^th floor, One Pittsburgh members fulfilled their obligation as part-owners of the company by challenging many of the banks practices.

Greg Hassell, the new CEO, was taken to task over his bloated pay and the fact that the bank, which is incorporated in Delaware, doesn’t pay its fair share of taxes. He attributed his obscene $5,937 an hour to “hard work and God’s graces,” raising the question whether those who actually handle rich people’s money and who are barely getting by on the crap wages the bank pays are just lazy or damned in God’s eyes. One stockholder pointed out that he would have to work 240 years to earn what Hassell makes in just one. Students wanted to know if board member and Pitt Chancellor Nordenberg should be taking $217,000 to serve a company whose tax-dodging ways are damaging the university he is charged to lead.

After two hours, citizen shareholders could see that the Hassell’s pals on the board – the CEO’s of Tiffany, Liberty Mutual, Meadwestvaco, and others — weren’t planning to suddenly give a damn about the 99 percent, so we left them with a rousing “Pay Your Fair Share!” and adjourned. Join us next week as we let EQT just how “happy” we are with their business practices.

Check out some of the coverage here!

Post-Gazette video

http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12101/1223087-28.stm

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_790661.html

http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2012/04/10/bny-mellon-passes-agenda.html

BNY Mellon Center; a show of their influence in Pittsburgh

BNY Mellon, banker to billionaires and our largest corporations, has been quietly doing business in Pittsburgh for generations. But last year, BNY was dragged into the limelight when they became a target – and campsite — of Occupy Pittsburgh.

As the bank moved to evict the occupiers from the park adjacent to its downtown headquarters (a park, incidentally, that was subsidized with taxpayer funds), the 99 percent began challenging the public to ask whether BNY Mellon shouldn’t be evicted instead.

There’s a good case to be made. In the first place, BNY isn’t always a good investment bank, In fact for the 99 per cent, it could be a very bad bank.

BNY Mellon is currently facing several lawsuits for allegedly defrauding investors, engaging in practices that have caused people to lose substantial portions of their pension plans.In one such case, the bank  is being tried for failing to review documents pertaining to the loans that made up its securities.

Because of missing or irregular documents created uncertainty over the securities, billions of dollars of damage were caused to pension funds such as the City of Grand Rapids General Retirement System and the Retirement Board of the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of the City of Chicago.

In another case BNY Mellon is being sued by a Los Angeles pension fund for overcharging for foreign exchange transactions.  Allegedly, BNY Mellon promised to use “best practices” to make sure the client got the best prices, but then went on to use worse prices to secretly profit from the difference.

As the result of a similar lawsuit in Ohio, the state decided to drop BNY Mellon as the custodian of several public pension funds.
Beyond being a not-so-good bank, BNY Mellon is a pretty bad neighbor.

BNY Mellon avoids paying taxes in PA by using the Delaware Loophole.  While our schools and transit lose funding in round after round of budget cuts, BNY Mellon, who employs more than 7 thousand Pennsylvanians in offices around the state, games the system by declaring itself a Delaware corporation.

Finally, BNY Mellon also pays exorbitant salaries to it’s 1% executives.  The bank’s top 5 executives made nearly $50 Million, led by the $12.35 Million CEO Gerald Hassell made.  Despite being able to pay it’s executives handsomely, in 2011 the bank announced it would slash 1,500 jobs to reduce operating costs.

Because BNY Mellon epitomizes so succinctly what is wrong with our economy, we must show that we cannot stand for their practices. In an economy this critical a bank that cuts jobs, filters money to the rich, and seeks to make money by unscrupulously putting their own investors at risk cannot be tolerated.

On April 10th One Pittsburgh will protest BNY Mellon at their stockholder meeting at the Omni William Penn Hotel, but that is only the start.  We ask that going forward anybody concerned about a fair economy stand with us in staying vigilant against BNY Mellon and other offenders.