NAMA Board Gets a Pay Increase

national | anti-capitalism | other press Friday March 12, 2010 14:24 by Gavin Gleeson - Workers Solidarity Movement - Lucy Parsons (Personal Capacity)

It was announced today that the NAMA board members received a huge pay hike with the board's chair receiving a 70% pay increase. This is in stark contract to the two successive wage cuts of between 14% - 18% of income for all public sector workers.

We've consistently heard the idea that we "all need to pull together" to get out of this recession, and that painful cuts are necessary. This however has shown itself to be little more than a slogan.

Indeed, this pay increase to the NAMA board members isn't an isolated event. The current crisis has not been a crisis for everyone. The massive transfer of funds from the public coffers to private banks has been a huge boon for the extremely wealthy. Forbes' list of billionaires reported a 50% increase in the wealth of billionaires and an increase in their numbers from 793 to 1,011 in 2009.

We should demand that if money is needed for a recovery, it come first and foremost from the people responsible for the investment decisions that precipitated the crisis. There should be no increase in the wages of those at the top while the rest of us suffer savage cuts.