Too Big Not To Organize

[marmar]

from In These Times:




Too Big Not To Organize
An international coalition of unions, led by SEIU, tries to unionize capitalism’s core: the banks.

By Mike Elk


BOSTON—Through the blare of screeching feedback from portable translation headsets and microphones, unionized bank workers from Brazil, England, Chile, Germany, and Uruguay are encouraging American workers to undertake an unprecedented campaign against a common enemy: Grupo Santander, the global banking giant which last year took control of Sovereign Bank.

The largest bank in the Euro-zone, where it is based, Santander is the world’s eighth largest banking company by market capitalization. While the company is very good at generating profits around the world (it’s the world’s fourth largest bank by profits), this international meeting is focusing on something else: how the bank’s new U.S. branches might become as unionized as branches in Europe and Latin America.

Santander bank branches are on average 75-percent unionized outside the United States, according to UNI Global Union Finance Director Oliver Roethig because most other industrialized nations have unionized banking sectors. In the United States, however, less than 1 percent of all front-office bank workers are organized. In fact, the unionized janitors working for contractors that clean Sovereign Bank’s headquarters in Boston, Mass., often make more than the bank tellers and personal bankers, whose average wage is $10-$12 dollars per hour, despite individually producing millions of dollars in profits for the bank each year.

But the financial sector, at the center of the U.S. economy, has never been unionized. The international workers and local leaders of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Communication Workers of America (CWA) gathered in July to use the clout of global union federations like the UNI Global Union to give labor a foothold in Santander’s Sovereign operations, and potentially organize the industry from there. If Santander employees are heavily unionized overseas, and corporate profits are so robust, then why shouldn’t American workers also join a union? ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6273/too_big_not_to_organize

[xchrom]

1. Union Yes! Nt

[NBachers]

2. Holy Shit- I never even thought of this before

It's a concept my neurons never even wrapped around.

Can you imagine; first the banking industry; then the rest of the financial industry getting unionized?

"It's so crazy it just might work . . . "

[HillbillyBob]

3. Am I hearing Vincint Price

chuckling in the darkness coming for the banksters..
You Know they will hate this and try to kill it quickly.

[Citizen Worker]

4. Yes! A bold step in building international solidarity, finally.

As a life long Union member and coming from a family rich in Union organizers one of the most gratifying experiences I had was in the Dublin airport. I reached in my pocket to find that I had a few Irish Punts to shed before coming home. Looking around I spotted a music store and went in. I asked the sales person if she had any Irish Labor music. She turned to look at the stacks of CD's behind her searching through the various titles. She turned back to me and asked if there was something specific. I replied that some of the more popular Labor music in the US at the time was about coal miners and office workers. She returned to the CDs and resumed her search. Finally, she turned back to me and said, "the problem is that most everyone in Ireland belongs to a Union." I allowed as how their struggle to organize was over and the Irish Labor movement was more about improving the lot of its members. We need to work to build the same level of Union density that advanced nations have.

Right on SEIU and CWA! Keep it up.

[Demeter]

5. Big Banks Won't Get Unions

They have enough largess to pay off troublemakers.

The little banks desperately need to stop exploiting their staff, but I doubt that there's much profit that can be shaken loose to benefit the working people.