Wells Fargo Branch Workers in Florida File for Union Election, Building on National Organizing Momentum

On Heels of New Mexico and Alaska Workers’ Election Filings, Wells Fargo Workers in Daytona Beach, FL Petition NLRB to Join CWA

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Wells Fargo workers at a bank branch in Daytona Beach, Florida filed for a union election today, just weeks after branch workers in New Mexico and Alaska filed for the first-ever union elections at the scandal-ridden bank. In a petition to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Florida-based bankers and tellers declared their intent to join the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United (WFWU) and take a transformative step toward repairing Wells Fargo’s toxic culture and improving the U.S. financial system. 

The Daytona Beach branch workers sent a letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf and management, informing them of the union election filing and expressing concerns with understaffing, a lack of compensation and the importance of having a collective voice. Today’s election filing comes as Scharf is set to appear at the Senate Banking Committee’s annual oversight hearing led by Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown. 

“As we continue to deal with high stress from rampant understaffing and inadequate pay, we are organizing a union at our branch in Florida so we can have a true voice to make working at the bank great for all of us,” said Corinne Jefferson, a Personal Banker at Wells Fargo’s Daytona Beach, FL-based branch. “We stand in solidarity with our fellow workers in New Mexico and Alaska who bravely filed for union elections last month, and we look forward to other branch and call center workers, as well as workers across Wells Fargo’s various departments and geographies, joining us in taking this critical step to make the bank a better place for workers, customers, and stakeholders. Wells Fargo, we are not backing down, and in fact, we’re just getting started.” 

Florida-based Wells Fargo workers’ union election marks the latest milestone for WFWU’s nationwide union drive and financial services workers’ rapidly growing fight for a seat at the table. Even as Wells Fargo executives attempt to push back against the union effort, workers across Wells Fargo divisions and geographies are seeking to reform the banking industry from the bottom-up in order to create a better financial system for workers and customers alike.

It was Wells Fargo workers with the Committee for Better Banks who helped sound the alarm on the fake account scandal in 2016. Since then, workers throughout the bank – from branch and call center workers, to tech and wealth management associates – have taken action and been organizing to form Wells Fargo Workers United. Momentum is building with over 1,000 workers signing the WFWU support pledge in just the last two weeks.

Wells Fargo workers have fought for years to hold Wells Fargo accountable to promises it has made, including around diversity and inclusion and access to banking services. Organizing workers have collaborated with shareholders to pressure Wells Fargo into conducting a racial equity audit and met with members of Congress and officials at the Federal Reserve and Department of Treasury to provide insight into Wells Fargo operations and policies. 

“As branch workers in Daytona Beach file for a union election today, Wells Fargo call center workers are leading a National Day of Action to build on this organizing momentum and demand that Wells Fargo remains neutral to their union drive. Wells Fargo workers are fired up more than ever before and ready to transform the bank once and for all,” said Committee for Better Banks Organizing Director Nick Weiner. “Each day, more and more Wells Fargo workers across the country are standing up for themselves and their customers and demanding a seat at the table. Their unprecedented effort to organize the financial services industry will only continue to grow with each election and become more difficult for Wells Fargo to ignore.”

Today’s filing comes just one week after the National Labor Relations Board reached a second settlement between workers in Hillsboro, Oregon and Wells Fargo, requiring the bank to post notice of workers’ right to organize at the call center and to email the notice outlining organizing rights to workers. This settlement comes on the heels of a string of Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges alleging the bank illegally restricted union activity by intimidating and retaliating against organizing workers and amid growing concern among bank leadership about a “union resurgence.” In October, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter outlining Wells Fargo’s ULP charges to Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu and Federal Reserve Vice Chair Michael Barr. The letter urges action to hold Wells Fargo accountable and ensure the systems in place are sufficient in preventing ongoing consumer abuses and compliance failures. 

The worker organizing effort at Wells Fargo is the first of its kind at a major bank in the United States. In their organizing campaign, Wells Fargo workers are showing the banking industry and the entire country what is possible when workers come together and use their collective voice. They join workers at smaller banks and credit unions, including Beneficial State Bank, Lake Michigan Federal Credit Union and Genesee Co-op Federal Credit Union who have organized their workplaces and made in-roads in one of the least organized sectors in the American economy. 

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About Wells Fargo Workers United 

Committee for Better Banks’ Wells Fargo Workers United is the only public effort by Wells Fargo employees to organize a union. With a union, workers are seeking to address chronic understaffing, unfair sales pressure, and unreasonable workloads to improve their working conditions and allow them to better support Wells Fargo customers. Since the union’s launch in 2021, Wells Fargo workers across virtually every state Wells Fargo operates in are organizing with WFWU, collaborating with shareholders, members of Congress, and officials at the Federal Reserve and the Department of Treasury to drive accountability at the country’s fourth largest bank.

About the Committee for Better Banks:

The Committee for Better Banks, the only independent voice for frontline bank employees, comprises bank workers, community and consumer advocacy groups, and labor organizations, coming together to improve conditions in the banking industry. Committee for Better Banks members include current and former employees of banks and credit unions across the country, including Wells Fargo, US Bank, Santander, Bank of The West, and Bank of America.