Employees at Casper Wells Fargo CY Ave branch vote to join union

CASPER, Wyo. — Workers at a Casper Wells Fargo bank branch have voted to unionize, making it the 20th branch in the country to join the growing movement.

The trend started a year ago, in November 2023, when a branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, joined the Communications Workers of America, according to Andrew King, who is the local union representative and a personal banker at Casper’s Wells Fargo west-side branch on CY Avenue. It’s one of three Wells Fargo branches in Casper and the only one in town to unionize at this time.

“[Albuquerque was] the first time that a bank in the U.S. has had an attempt at unionization,” King said. “Our vote at our branch was on Sept. 26, 2024.”

At least another two branches in the country joined since King spoke with Oil City News earlier this month.

The Communications Workers of America, or CWA, formed a division called the Committee for Better Banks, which according to its website was formed in 2016 in response to Wells Fargo’s efforts to increase revenue by pressuring customers into purchasing new services. The union said its whistleblowers were responsible for exposing the tactics, which resulted in opening millions of new accounts for customers without their consent. The company eventually agreed to pay $3 billion to settle civil and criminal charges, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Attempts by Oil City News to reach Wells Fargo media representatives were unsuccessful.

“Our branch has five people in it,” said King, who has worked there for five years and initially enjoyed the job. “It didn’t start this way,” he said. “They’ve been cutting staff, and I’ve seen our customers suffer from it.”

King says the bank has urged customers to use its online services while also outsourcing customer service to overseas call centers. While being understaffed, King says pay hasn’t kept up with rising costs of living. “People walk in and think, ‘You’re a banker and you must be making so much,’ but we’re really not,” he said.

King said he got the urge to unionize after receiving a flyer in the mail. After about a year of declining work conditions, King said he approached his coworkers with the union idea and they were all on board.

“They thought it was a great idea,” he said, “so we filed for an election in early September, and we all voted ‘yes.'”

King says the little things that local customers could count on at their bank branch are being chipped away as jobs are slashed throughout the company.

“Customers don’t know what’s going on, and honestly I think that’s on purpose,” he said. “I think our union is an effort to get more transparency about staff [and other issues],” he said. “Our mortgage guy retired and we’re not replacing him, so now all of our mortgages are centralized through one place.”

“We don’t have coffee for customers anymore,” he continued. “We don’t have suckers or dog treats or things like that; it’s all about profit.”

Wells Fargo is still dealing with the repercussions of its fake accounts scandal, but has increased its efforts to have the punishments eased, according to Reuters. Wells Fargo’s latest earnings report beat expectations, benefiting from a strong job market and rebounding activity in capital markets.

However, King said the workers aren’t seeing those benefits.

“Employees saw none of that,” he said. “What are they using it for? They’re using it to do stock buybacks just to make the people who already own the bank, own it even more, and us at the branch level are not seeing that.”