WHY ARE WE TAKING ACTION ON APRIL 27TH?

*WELLS FARGO BANK FACT SHEET*

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MEDIA COVERAGE

• ABC News-More Banker Outrage: Protesters Plan Marches on Wall Street Banks
  
• The Hill-Unions Get Ready for Wall St. Reform When Congress Returns
  
• The New York Times-Protests Planned for Banks' Shareholder Meetings
  
• The Huffington Post-Showdown in Wall Street and K Street
  

 

OVERVIEW

We stand at a crossroads in the history of our country. We have seen the greatest economy in the world brought to its knees by the reckless greed of the most powerful banks executives in the country. This is a critical moment to forge a broad-based alliance of faith, labor and community organizations to unite to hold banks accountable and create the political will to bring sweeping financial reform and build a new economy that values families and communities.

THE PROBLEM

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley paid themselves $140 billion last year. They did this after crashing our economy and taking billions of our tax dollars to bail them out. They did this after causing 8 million of us to lose our jobs. They did this after causing over 5 million of us to lose our homes to foreclosure with another 8 or 9 million projected in the coming years. Yet while all this has been happening, these same banks haven’t done a thing to change the way they do business or lift a hand to fix the mess they created.

In the past year, Wall Street and the big banks have taken $4.7 trillion from U.S. taxpayers but have failed to pass the benefits on to our communities. The consequences have been devastating: 6 million lost jobs, $6 trillion in lost homeowner wealth, and up to $58.0 billion in lost annual property taxes.

Americans urgently need solutions, but the banks are not doing their part. Instead, the banks continue to pay billions in bonuses to their highest-level executives, while cutting back on lending to small businesses, raising consumer fees, and foreclosing on millions more homes. The actions of the largest banks in the country have also hurt our state and local government budgets, which depend on property and income taxes to fund our basic public services. In California, we have a $26.0 billion deficit.

It is an understatement to say that our country faces a severe moral crisis when banks hand out billions in bonuses to people who are already millionaires—or even billionaires—and refuses to help hardworking families to stay in their homes or provide loans so that businesses can hire more workers.

CLICK HERE to view the full research report, Bank Accountability: The Key To Keeping Families in Their Homes

THE SOLUTION

We need a powerful agenda that will provide meaningful financial reform, but also restructure our economy. Here are ten simple things that banks need to do to move our country forward:

1. Invest in creating jobs for the American worker

2. Invest in America’s neighborhoods

3. Stop bankrupting our cities and states

4. Keep families in their homes

5. Take responsibility for foreclosed homes

6. End race-based, predatory lending

7. Get out of the payday lending business

8. Commit to green and sustainable practices

9. Provide safe and affordable credit to our communities

10. Allow frontline bank workers to sound the alarm on harmful practices.

The United States Congress needs to pass financial reform that will protect ordinary Americans. But that is not enough. Bank executives need to stop enriching themselves at the expense of the American people.

THE STRATEGY

The week of April 25^th a wave of mobilizations are beginning across the country, from San Francisco to Kansas City to Charlotte to New York City. At all of these events, a broad section of organizations and leaders are presenting a common set of demands to the most powerful financial institutions in the country and demand that they change their corporate practices and policies. If they do not agree, organizations around the country are poised to launch a massive campaign to organize people and money to pressure them and hold them accountable. Congregations, religious denominations, unions, pension funds, city and state governments are all poised to move money out of uncooperative banks.

THE ACTION

This first event will be Tuesday, April 27 in San Francisco, California at the annual shareholder meeting of Wells Fargo Bank. A procession through the San Francisco Financial District—the center of finance in the western United States—will begin at Justin Herman Plaza at 12:00noon. The march will be led by a diverse coalition of faith, labor and community leaders and the Wells Fargo stagecoach will pull a coffin to symbolize the death of the American economy and corporate responsibility. The procession will converge on the Wells Fargo Annual Shareholder meeting at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in the Merchants Exchange Building at 465 California Street in San Francisco.

A delegation of leaders will go into the shareholder meeting and address the highest ranking executives of the second largest bank in the country. They will present their demands and the consequences if Wells Fargo does not comply. They will then march out en masse to the rally waiting outside. While the delegation is addressing the shareholders and executives, speakers at the rally outside will be providing testimony and research about the devastating impact Wells Fargo and other large banks have had on our communities. They will also lay out the strategy to hold Wells Fargo and other banks accountable to acting in the interests of the American people. CLICK HERE to view the flyer.

The following day, dozens of CCISCO and PICO leaders from around the country will join with hundreds of leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina at the Bank of America annual shareholder meeting to present their proposals for action.  This is a historic coalition of faith, labor, civil rights, and community organizations that are uniting to help build a new economy.

WHY ARE WE TAKING ACTION ON APRIL 27TH?

SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

AFL-CIO, Alameda Labor Council, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, California Labor Federation, California Reinvestment Coalition, Causa Justa/Just Cause, Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Community Organization, Contra Costa Labor Council, Jobs with Justice (SF Chapter), North Bay Labor Council, Napa Solano Labor Council, PICO National Network, Sacramento Labor Council, San Francisco Labor Council, SEIU, Locals 1000, 1021 and 1877, South Bay Labor Council, Tenants Together, United Health Care Workers West, SEIU-United Health Care Workers West (SEIU-UHWW), Workers United

 

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