A few years ago the “Occupy Wall Street” movement energized thousands of young, progressive activists to march on New York’s financial district, and commercial centers in other parts of the country, to demand greater accountability and responsibility from the financial services industry for democratizing the nation’s economy and achieving a level playing field for disadvantaged and impoverished communities.. Despite widespread publicity and support, the movement itself lost momentum, especially since there did not seem to be any significant effort to organize workers in the financial services sector of the economy. The failure of Occupy activists to attract support from bank, investment company employees and established union groups to reform the financial services industry was a direct and primary cause of the Occupy Movement’s effort to accomplish little more than disrupt traffic, block pedestrian sidewalks and set up tent cities on what little open space there was on Wall Street. 

Despite the failure of the Occupy Movement to hold financial firms accountable to their employees, their customers and the community in general, there has finally been some movement to organize bank employees. Recently, workers at two Wells Fargo bank branches notified the National Labor Relations Board of their intent to hold elections on whether to organize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). One branch is in Alaska and the other is in New Mexico. There are 13 nonmanagement workers employed between the two branches. The most important issues involved driving the organizing effort are low pay and insufficient staffing. It’s a small start, but coming after union organizing efforts in other industries it may be a sign of gathering momentum in achieving economic justice for workers. Shortly after Wella Fargo workers in New Mexico and Alaska filed their notice of intent to organize, they were joined by a third group of workers in Florida, an indication of gathering momentum among bank employees to affiliate with a major union.

The reason organizing workers in the investor-capitalist sector of the economy has become more imperative is the serious decline of worker income relative to income from capital investments. This trend of eroding living standards for workers in the financial services industry is even more alarming. Among workers providing financial services, the median salary for a bank teller is $36,000 and a bank manager is $68,000, which is considerably less than the median household income of $74,000. Ironically, as many as one-third of bank tellers are receiving some form of public assistance. It is not by coincidence that salaries and benefits for bank employees are extremely low compared to other sectors of the economy, while only 1.3% of them belong to a union compared to 6% of workers for the entire private sector. This trend accelerated during the recent pandemic as employees of corporate financial services were forced to continue providing services despite great hardship and danger to themselves and their families. Without union protections and guarantees for their safety and security, workers were dangerously exposed, exploited and manipulated by corporate managers and executives to put themselves at risk to ensure continuous profitability for investor capitalists.

Difficult as it is for workers in financial services, Wells Fargo Bank as the third largest bank in the US is the worst of the lot in terms of protecting and compensating its employees. To make matters worse in recent years Wells Fargo has developed a very negative perception of taking care of their customers and consumers of financial services. Workers and customers alike were sacrificed to the Gods of investor capitalism, the goal of maximizing profitability at the expense of workers and consumers. In recent years Wells Fargo was scandalized by revelations of falsifying and creating fake bank accounts to disguise weaknesses in operating performance. Ripping off customers with undisclosed charges and penalties also characterized the Bank’s operations. Workers were exploited by the practice of massive overtime violations, refusing to compensate workers for their labor and overtime, and even falsifying records related to diversity and hiring practices that effectively discriminated against women and minorities. 

Eventually, Wells Fargo’s anti-consumer and anti-labor practices became more widely known which resulted in several instances of significant negative publicity for the company and its stockholders. In addition to all the unfavorable publicity against Wells Fargo for abuse of its workers and customers, the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau initiated several legal sanctions against Wells Fargo. As a result the Bank had to pay $2 billion restitution and compensation to its customers for violations of consumer protection laws, in addition to $1.7 billion for fines and civil penalties. Among the violations cited by the CFPB were illegal fee assessments and interest charges on home mortgages and auto loans as well as wrongful home foreclosures and illegal repossession of consumer vehicles.  There were also unlawful fees and service charges applied to checking and savings accounts. Wells Fargo was not only effectively stealing from their employees, but their customers and outstanding loan recipients as well. Despite all this unlawful and unethical conduct, Wells Fargo continued to post record profits for its investor-capitalist shareholders, even during the recent pandemic and subsequent financial collapse.

The Wells Fargo scandals provided an opportunity for various pro-labor groups and organizations to organize workers in that company. Among groups and organizations advocating for greater accountability to protect workers and consumers is the Committee For Better Banks, an affiliate of the Communications Workers Of America and a leader in organizing bank employees to demand greater participation in management decisions affecting their environment and welfare. The function of Committee For Better Banks is to raise awareness and hold America’s financial institutions to account for their policies and practices that impact bank workers, customers, communities, investors and other stakeholders. Wells Fargo Workers United is another group organized by employees at Wells Fargo which is actively involved in getting workers to form a union and demand the right to collective bargaining for higher wages and better working conditions.

Worker dissatisfaction with Well Fargo’s anti-consumer and unfair labor practices are the primary reason why union organizing efforts have focused on that company unlike other large financial institutions. Bank employees, especially in the customer service sector, were heavily motivated by upper management at Wells Fargo to pressure customers into products, loans and other bank services they might not otherwise have chosen. Employees were even pressured into creating fake accounts, or multiple accounts under the same name, falsifying records and inaccurate information. The resultant turmoil and scandalous publicity eventually affected profitability and hence shareholder value. This created a unique opportunity for union organizers and workers to begin the process of establishing a functional union to represent workers and protect them from further abuses. 

Other than Wells Fargo, unfortunately, there has been very little activity for organizing employees of financial institutions, especially large banks and investment firms. There have been some success stories the last few years but mostly at very small credit unions and/regional banks. It is ironic, however, that these modest successes have occurred in smaller banks that are not even owned by investor capitalists. These local financial services, credit unions and community savings banks, are mutually owned businesses accountable to their members and customers. They are independent from private interests and Wall Street speculators.

One notable success story, however modest it might be, for organizing workers in financial services is the Beneficial State Bank of California. The Bank was founded as a nonprofit community bank in 2007 by philanthropist and progressive activist Tom Steyer and his spouse, Kat Taylor. Their purpose was to fund development and nonprofit interests intended to support disadvantaged communities and individuals who would otherwise be denied credit by traditional, banks and other profit-seeking capital interests. BSB, unlike investor-owned banks, always had a reputation for protecting their workers as well as their customers and surrounding community. Part of that commitment to workers culminated in ratifying a union contract with the Communications Workers of America in 2021. That contract gave workers at BSB the highest amount of wages and benefits than any other financial institution. Nevertheless, BSB continues to generate a sufficient amount of net operating revenue to maintain stability and leverage its capital assets to continue providing financial support to their customers and community.

The Occupy Wall Street movement failed because of its inability or unwillingness to focus on organizing workers in financial services, and coordinating their struggle with established union groups such as the Communications Workers of America. The Wells Fargo scandal and subsequent efforts to organize employees at that company illustrates the need for progressive and pro-labor activists to concentrate their efforts on the financial services sector of the economy. This is to a large extent the final frontier for democratizing the economy and creating a work environment where workers participate in improving their working conditions. This includes addressing such issues as adequate wages and benefits as well as facilitating policies to create a more positive working experience for bank employees. Recognizing bank employees and their representatives in collective bargaining not only improves working conditions at those companies, but will also facilitate better customer relations and services. In the long term worker participation and input into management policies and decisions will benefit everyone involved including workers, managers, customers and community.

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