After losing billions of dollars, Goldman Sachs converted itself from an investment bank to a bank holding company. Why? To get some of that fat bailout cash.

Goldman Sachs is a major investor in Burger King. A report by released by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) illustrates why this should matter to you.

The report finds that one of Goldman Sachs' major investments, Burger King, costs taxpayers more than a quarter billion dollars a year as Burger King employees are forced to rely on public health and income support programs as a result of the lack of affordable employer health coverage and sub-poverty wage levels at Burger King.

Meanwhile, Burger King chief executive John Chidsey took home $5.4 million in 2008 and Goldman Sachs accepted $10 billion in taxpayer bailout money ¾ then paid out $6.5 billion in bonuses. Goldman paid the highest per employee bonus average among top banks reporting so far, and the firm's bonuses were nearly double the average bonus on Wall Street. If Goldman Sachs had used the $6.5 billion it paid in corporate bonuses to help Burger King's 360,000 workers instead, each worker would have received $18,000.

Not only has Goldman Sachs decided that it would be better to pay bonuses to the same idiots who lost them money than it would be to raise wages for Burger King workers...but just like their competitor McDonald's, Burger King has been spending huge amounts of money to lobby against the Employee Free Choice Act.

Between 2006 and 2008 Burger King has spent $319,648 on lobbying, including lobbying against the Employee Free Choice Act, a measure that would ensure workers the freedom to form a union for a voice for improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. Burger King also spent $180,000 to hire lobbyists to fight pro-worker legislation, including an increase in the minimum wage in 2006 and 2007.

Below is a video from War on Greed which outlines the Burger King situation.