Workers at Wells Fargo, the fourth largest bank in the US, have ramped up their union organizing campaign in recent weeks in a move that marks the largest union drive at a US bank in decades.
Four Wells Fargo branches have filed for union elections since November in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bethel, Alaska, Atwater, California, and Daytona Beach, Florida. The first union elections in New Mexico and Alaska are set to be held on 21 December.
The union organizing effort kicked off during the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers met with the Wells Fargo CEO, Charles Scharf, in December 2020 over the bank’s numerous scandals over the years, concerns with company policies and lagging pay and benefits.
Last year the bank agreed to pay $3.7bn in fines over a long list of charges that it harmed consumers by charging illegal fees and interest on auto loans and mortgages among other issues.
Mac Siruta, who has worked in the claims assistance center at Wells Fargo’s Jordan Creek campus in West Des Moines, Iowa, for about three years, said: “Right now, we’re losing talent to competitors, who are offering higher pay. Bank of America just raised their minimum wage to $23 an hour. So our best talent is going to go where they can make the most money or achieve the most success.”
Siruta said workers at Wells Fargo feared retaliation due to Wells Fargo’s opposition to unionization, an issue Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio has raised with federal bank regulators.
“Don’t be the union’s bait,” said one anti-union flyer distributed by Wells Fargo. Another anti-union flyer claimed the Communications Workers of America was ‘pulling the strings’, behind Wells Fargo Workers United and claimed the union did not have enough experience in the banking industry.
“Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf said he was going to exercise his right to speak to workers about these issues. Nobody has spoken to us about these issues. No executive has spoken to me or anyone on my floor about these issues. There is no way for us to speak to the executives,” added Siruta.
A Bloomberg report in April 2023 noted leaders at the bank were worried a union organizing wave could hit the bank following the high-profile union drives in recent years at Starbucks and Amazon. The bank has settled two unfair labor practice charges filed by workers with the National Labor Relations Board. Several others that have been filed around the US are still under review.
Workers emphasized working conditions, policies, pay and benefits were behind their push to unionize at Wells Fargo.
Corinne Jefferson, a personal banker for about 13 years at Wells Fargo’s Daytona Beach, Florida, branch, cited chronic understaffing at her branch, lagging wages and expensive healthcare benefits as some of the issues driving workers to want to unionize at Wells Fargo.
“We’re not getting lunch breaks because there’s no staff and there are plenty of other branches where workers are not getting lunches,” said Jefferson. “There’s no reason why Wells Fargo employees would not be able to take lunches, there’s no reason why they should not get enough in their paychecks to be able to pay their bills. There are employees who can’t go to the doctor because they can’t afford the health insurance. They should not be in that situation at this company.”
She said that since her branch filed for a union election, HR representatives had been at the branch regularly handing out anti-union flyers to workers.
Jefferson claimed the representatives have said they are there to support the workers but refuted that notion because they had not stepped in to support understaffed departments in the branch.
“There are plenty of other workers at other branches not getting lunches,” added Jefferson. “We as employees are sticking together, we’re not backing down.”
A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said: “We strongly believe everyone’s individual voice should be heard and that working directly together is the best way to continue to support our employees. We’re proud of what we have accomplished together, and while there is always more to be done, we believe we do our best work for our customers and our employees by working together without the intervention of a third party.”