'Just the beginning': Two Wells Fargo branches file for union election

Employees at two Wells Fargo branches in New Mexico and Alaska have filed for union elections, a major milestone in efforts to unionize the country's fourth-largest bank.

Organizers say they have the votes necessary for workers to unionize at a branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and another in Bethel, Alaska. If approved during an election, the effort would bring more unions to an industry that's not accustomed to having them: banking.

It would come as the labor movement sees high-profile gains, with unionization efforts at Starbucks succeeding and unions for actors and auto workers recently landing major contract wins following strikes. In the financial services industry, employees at a couple of credit unions and small banks have unionized — but none nearly as large as the $1.9-trillion asset Wells Fargo.

Employees at other Wells Fargo branches and divisions have also reached out about forming unions, said Nick Weiner, organizing director at the Committee for Better Banks. The labor-backed group is helping organize employees at Wells Fargo who have voiced a need for better pay and working conditions.

"This is just the beginning," Weiner said.

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The branch employees filed petitions for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, which certifies unions if they get a majority vote from employees. Unionized employees make up a small chunk of the U.S. workforce, thanks to a decadeslong decline. But the NLRB said last month that petitions to start a union have seen a "dramatic surge" and are at their highest levels since 2015.

Saul Van Beurden, Wells Fargo's CEO of consumer and business banking, said in a statement that the bank has a "deep commitment to invest in and support everyone who works at Wells Fargo" and that it has "significantly improved" pay and benefits for lower-paid employees.

The bank has decreased employees' share of total health care costs, bumped up median base salaries by 26% for those who make less than $50,000, reduced required workdays in many branches and bumped up staffing, Van Beurden said. Many improvements were thanks to the bank's efforts to "actively listen to our employees through multiple feedback channels," he said.

"We strongly believe everyone's individual voice should be heard, and that direct connection is the best way to continue to make progress in ensuring that our workplace helps our employees thrive," Van Beurden said.

The push to unionize is playing out at a bank that's spent years working its way out of regulatory scandals, most notably sales practices that led employees to open up phony accounts for consumers. CEO Charlie Scharf has worked on overhauling the company since joining in late 2019.

Sabrina Perez, a senior premier banker at Wells Fargo's Albuquerque branch, said in a statement that the union effort is aimed at moving the bank "towards a brighter future where workers and customers are treated equitably and with respect." Perez has worked at Wells Fargo for nearly 10 years.

Jewel Tootkaylok, an associate personal banker in the Bethel, Alaska, branch, said while Wells Fargo always says it wants to hear employees' opinions, a union "actually gives our voice a backbone."

"We will be able to communicate with the higher-ups far better, and in return that will help our customers in the long run," said Tootkaylok, who returned to Wells Fargo last year as a personal banker after a couple of stints as a teller.

Bethel is 400 miles west of Anchorage and is not part of Alaska's road system, making it hard to get supplies to its thousands of residents. Groceries and other day-to-day necessities are costly in Bethel and its surrounding villages, and inflation has only made them more expensive. Difficulties in building new homes makes rent more expensive.

Yet Tootkaylok says the pay for her position hasn't budged since at least 2016.

"I just want the employees of Wells Fargo and my friends that work within Wells Fargo all to receive the compensation that they deserve," Tootkaylok said.

A Committee for Better Banks spokesperson said the group hopes the elections will happen before year-end. Five eligible employees work at the Bethel branch, and all of them support the union, the spokesperson said. A union at the Albuquerque branch also has majority support among its eight eligible employees.

Those numbers are small compared with the employees across the bank's more than 4,000 branches, along with call support centers and other divisions. Unionization efforts are also occurring in the bank's other divisions, and the Committee for Better Banks has battled with Wells Fargo over what it has called union-busting activities at a couple of locations.

But approvals of a union would mark another high-profile win for the labor movement. It's seen a few defeats at Amazon, but the push for unionization at Starbucks stores have been more successful, as have efforts among graduate students and health care workers. Strikes and major union-sought pay bumps have also garnered media attention, including negotiations between UPS and Teamsters that avoided a strike.

"I think it must make everyone look at unions in a very different way and begin to say, 'Well, gee, if this works for my local Starbucks barista, if it works for all of these other people, maybe it will work for me and my workplace,'" said Ileen DeVault, a labor history professor at Cornell University.

The feeling that "unions are on the move" feeds on itself, said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who's written extensively on trade policy and labor.

Even if the Wells Fargo effort doesn't end up unionizing many branches quickly, the attempts would bring valuable lessons, he said.

"Unions will learn a lot from this," said Shaiken, adding that the Wells Fargo efforts will "allow them to try again or to try more effectively at other banks."