CALIFORNIA: According to a statement from the Committee for Better Bankers, Wells Fargo staff members at a tiny bank branch in Atwater, California, decided on Thursday not to organize a union, making it the first Wells location to oppose growing unionization efforts.
An anonymous source with knowledge of the vote said that the vote was three to one against becoming a member of the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU). The source was speaking about personnel matters.
The California vote comes after workers at a Wells branch in Bethel, Alaska decided last month to give up on unionization efforts, and workers at two other Wells branches, in Daytona, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, elected to become members of the union.
One of the first significant US lenders with a unionized workforce is Wells Fargo. A worker at the Atwater branch claimed that prior to the private vote, the bank exerted pressure on staff members.
Salvador Sotelo Jr., an associate banker at Wells Fargo’s Atwater office, stated in a statement on Thursday that “We will not back down until every worker at Wells Fargo is treated with the respect and dignity on the job we deserve.”
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However, a different worker claimed that Wells did not put pressure on staff.
“We didn’t think the management was putting undue pressure on us to sway the election. According to Jessica Grajeda Burgos, an employee of the Atwater branch and one of the members who had initially filed the petition to create a union, “We all did our own research and voted on that basis.”
“Atwater branch employees made their voices heard by voting in a fair election that the union is challenging because the outcome is not what they wanted,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.
