UNI Global Union, of which FIRST Union is a member, released a report this week that shows since the beginning of the financial crisis over 300,360 jobs have been lost in the finance sector in 18 countries (UK, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Romania, Moldavia, Greece, Ireland, Australia, India and the US).

The same banks who laid off thousands of workers made billions in profits – in the range of 4 to 40 billion US dollars. For example, HSBC made almost $22 billion dollars in 2011,  but cut 30,000 jobs. Deutsche Bank made $7 billion profit but slashed 22,000 jobs.

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said “The global financial system needs to change the rules of the game. Bankers’ expectations are too high. Reaching for a rate of return of more than 15 percent is clearly unsustainable.  These banks are still making enormous profits, paying their executives immorally high bonuses while putting thousands of people out of work.”

“We need real banks that invest in the real economy. And we need them to listen to real people including their own workers.”