.UAW may pull Chase accounts [View All]

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Detroit News

United Auto Workers President Bob King and religious leaders say they plan to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from JP Morgan Chase accounts to protest the bank's refusal to agree to a two-year freeze on foreclosures in Michigan.

King, farm union leader Baldemar Velazquez and two clerics will hold a conference today at the Central United Methodist Church in Detroit to announce their campaign against the New York-based bank.

"Chase needs to help unemployed homeowners in Michigan," King said in a statement.

Organizers also are protesting the bank's ties to the tobacco company RJ Reynolds Corp., which they say has refused to negotiate with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee over wages and working conditions at farms of contract growers in North Carolina.

The statement said King is prepared to withdraw all of the UAW's funds from the bank.

"The words of Chase officials that they are willing to help the thousands who are living in undervalued homes and facing possible eviction is unconvincing in light of their refusal to seriously consider a moratorium on foreclosures," said Pastor Alexander Bullock with the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.King's involvement further underscores his promise that he would increase the social activism of the UAW, which has focused in recent years on preserving the hard-won gains of current and retired workers.

Organizers are calling on people to close their Chase accounts and cancel Chase credit cards in a campaign that tries to tap into the popular frustration with big banks, which received federal aid during the financial crisis.




Read more: http://detnews.com/article/20100924/AUTO01/9240362/1148/auto01/UAW-may-pull-Chase-accounts