Vice, March 2, 2020: Bank Workers Unionize for the First Time in 40 Years
More than 100 workers at a Tom Steyer-founded bank have unionized with Communications Workers of America (CWA)—becoming the first in the financial industry to win collective bargaining rights in more than 40 years.
Workers at the bank unionized, in large part, to set a standard for the rest of the financial industry to be able to demand higher wages, benefits and have the ability to speak out in an industry rife with workplace issues.
The banking industry has one of the lowest rates of union representation in any industry, at 1.1%. And it has an abysmal track record of discrimination, pay inequity and unrealistic productivity quotas. One in three bank tellers relies on some form of government assistance. The median annual salary for bank tellers was $29,450 in 2019. Meanwhile, profits at the biggest banks in the United States soared to record levels last year—thanks to a $38 billion Trump Administration tax write-off. In one particularly egregious example from 2016, Well Fargo fired 5,300 employees who opened 2 million authorized credit card and deposit accounts under pressure to meet productivity quotas enforced by the bank.
