New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer delivered the keynote address at Local 237’s Annual Founders Day Luncheon, where he described the challenges of his role to an audience of about 300 Local 237 retirees and union officials gathered at the New York Hilton on May 20.

Local 237 President Carl Haynes introduced Spitzer for the second time in less than two weeks, the first being in Las Vegas at the Teamsters Unity Conference, where Spitzer was also a guest speaker. Calling Spitzer a “consumer hero,” Haynes lauded the attorney general’s accomplishments, including new regulations on Wall Street, better air quality, disclosure of Medicaid abuses and millions of dollars returned to green grocer workers.

Spitzer said his office has generated at least $4 billion directly back to investors, and much more is expected by the time “white-collar crime cases play out.”

He singled out one theme resulting from state investigations and prosecutions of Wall Street firms and the pharmaceutical industry: “The Bush administration has stifled the ability to protect real people from the most powerful people in the state.”

Spitzer said he found few allies in his mission, but “the union was there, because the truth mattered.” The truth is that “people handling your money forget they work for you.”

Spitzer, who has gained a reputation as the “People’s Lawyer,” decried how Wall Street firms relied on the defense that “everybody was playing the same game, using your money without meeting obligations to small investors.” Even regulators at the Security and Exchange Commission “were worried about CEO rights,” said Spitzer, emphasizing the vast disparity in the ratio between CEO earnings and the average worker’s salary, which was 531-1 in 2002.

He added that pharmaceutical companies paid millions of dollars to encourage drug developers to stop producing cheaper generic drugs. They also inflated average wholesale drug prices, said Spitzer, recalling that when pharmaceutical firms were prosecuted, their weak defense was “Everyone knew we were lying.”

Focusing on Founders Day and the organizing principles of Local 237, President Haynes told retirees that it’s important to “remember from where you came.”

Haynes recalled his start at the Housing Authority in the 1960s when caretakers earned $3,000 a year, and managers earned $10,000. “Today, you’re with us until the end,” Haynes assured retirees, adding that he is “very happy about our welfare fund.”

“We’re fighting back against the Bush administration,” exclaimed Spitzer, who urged retirees to vote in the November elections. “Let’s go out there and re-defeat Bush, and let’s do it right this time so that Rehnquist doesn’t get a chance to overturn the electorate.”

Haynes noted the union’s progress since the 1960s, and the contributions made by retirees, who are “builders of the union.” He also called for more progress and emphasized that “In our contract, we’ll make sure your benefits stay there forever.”