January 23, 2009

At least 5000 Australian jobs have been lost in the finance industry since the global economic crisis began, prompting a protest in Brisbane today calling on banks to stick by their staff.The Finance Sector Union has organised the lunch-time rally for the corner of Creek and Queen streets, out the front of the ANZ and National Australia banks, to call on the industry to support their staff through tough times.

"Over the past decade, banks have recorded record profit after record profit," FSU Queensland secretary Michael Clifford said."Their staff have been there for them and assisted in getting those results, so we'd ask that the banks stick with their staff now and not engage in some sort of knee-jerk reaction to show they're tough on costs."