Wells Fargo workers in Wilmington, Delaware, have filed for a union election, soon after employees at a Wells branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became the first employees at a major U.S. bank to unionize in decades.
Employees of Wilmington’s Fairfax branch filed their intention with the National Labor Relations Board to join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United, according to a Committee for Better Banks announcement Thursday.
The employees also penned a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf to express concerns about understaffing and compensation.
“Wells Fargo workers’ historic union vote in Albuquerque created a ripple effect of worker solidarity nationwide, and we are excited to join them, becoming the first Wells Fargo workers in Delaware to petition for a seat at the table at one of largest banks in the country,” said Scott Keehn, senior premier banker at Wells’ Fairfax branch, in a prepared statement. “With a union, we will have the power to negotiate fair working conditions that allow us to better serve our customers and our communities.”
Keehn added the unionization movement is “creating a real sea of change across the entire financial services industry.”
“Even as Wells Fargo spreads misinformation about WFWU’s union efforts, we will not allow this intimidation to stop us from fighting to have our voices heard at the bank, across all sectors,” he said.
Wells employees at the Albuquerque branch voted 5-3 to join CWA late last month. Employees told the Guardian that they began organizing in December 2020 following a Zoom call with Scharf led them to believe that bank higher-ups were ignoring their concerns about understaffing, salaries and lack of career mobility.
Now, Albuquerque employees will have to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with the bank — a process that could take more than a year.
“We respect our employees’ rights to vote for union representation," a Wells Fargo spokesperson told Banking Dive. "At the same time, we continue to believe our employees are best served by working directly with the Company and its leadership.”
Wells employees at branches in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Atwater, California, both filed for union elections last month, as well. Sources told Reuters the elections are expected to be held this month.
Employees at a branch in Bethel, Alaska filed a petition for a union election in November, but withdrew the petition. However, one of those employees, personal banker Walker Sexton, told American Banker that employees’ “values have not changed.”
“We believe Wells Fargo workers need a voice on the job,” Sexton said. “We believe in being advocates for ourselves and our customers. We believe change at Wells Fargo is past due.”
In May, Wells shareholders voted on a proposed Freedom of Association policy brought forth by the AFL-CIO that would have ensured better protections for Wells Fargo workers seeking to organize a union.
Although the proposal was deemed “unnecessary” and faltered, receiving 36% of shareholder support, Arizona-based Wells employee and WFWU member Trevor Brown told Banking Dive at the time that being able to put forth the proposal was a “huge first step to being able to show that we actually exist and that we want to form a union and be recognized.”
“For us to get the results of over a third is pretty solid and pretty good considering the opposition we have, so it’s pretty exciting,” he said.
Last month, Wells settled a lawsuit with workers at a Hillsboro, Oregon, call center who claimed managers improperly removed pro-union materials. This was the bank’s second such settlement, following one with employees of a Salt Lake City call center. Now, employees at both places are officially permitted to distribute union materials in non-work areas at their call centers, and Wells agreed to post notices there outlining workers’ rights to organize.
