Wells Fargo Illegally Cheats Union Families by Cutting Off Health Care

Last week, I wrote about workers who were fighting back against Wells Fargo after the bank cut off credit to Quad City Die Casting factory on Moline, Ill., causing the factory to close. This week Wells Fargo has cut off health care benefits to the workers, according to the union, which says the decision violates federal labor laws.

The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1174, which represents the workers, filed charges yesterday with the National Labor Relations Board. The company also informed employees that Wells Fargo would not approve the expenditure of owed vacation pay, and the company has refused to pay a two percent wage increase due the employees under their legally binding collective bargaining agreement.

As Wells Fargo cuts off credit to Quad City and forces it to break its collective bargaining agreement with its workers, the bank has $25 billion in federal bailout funds that were intended in part to make credit more available to businesses.

"Wells Fargo first ends financing, forcing our company to close, and now they won't pay us what we are owed by law. To us, our vacation, insurance and wages mean everything to our families. But to Wells Fargo it's pennies, not even a blip in their billions. Yet they choose to cheat us out of what we have earned," said Deb Johann, a union member employed at the factory.

According to management officials, Wells Fargo approves all expenditures by the company on a weekly basis. Workers are calling upon federal officials to investigate the practices of Wells Fargo.

The UE that represents workers at the plant is the same union that occupied Republic Windows and Doors last summer. Its members are engaging in direct action against Wells Fargo, calling on the bank to keep the plant open. Workers continue to demand that Wells Fargo do what is necessary to keep the company in business until a sale of the company is finalized. According to parties familiar with the discussions, there are currently several interested parties looking to make a bid to purchase Quad City Die Casting.

The union says that after having received $25 billion in bailout money, Wells Fargo has an obligation to promote economic recovery by keeping the plant open. UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley said, "We can't let this giant bank default on its obligation to the American people and the people of the Quad Cities. Wells Fargo is a roadblock to economic recovery."

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Comments

[JonLewis]

Unfortunately, Quad City Die Casting is technically bankrupt - this is a certainty. The bank is now responsible for facilitating an orderly wrap-up of the business in a effort to preserve whatever asset base can be maintained to satisfy secured creditors.

Unsecured creditors, which most certainly include those with accumulated vacation time, are unlikely to receive much - if any - payment that they feel is due them. This is the nature of bankruptcy and unsecured creditors. Federal bankruptcy law and generations worth of case law mandate this treatment.

Good companies sometimes fail to adapt, become poor companies, and eventually dissolve. Quad City appears to be well down this path. Funneling ever more taxpayers dollars (through a bank and then through a bankruptcy process - both of which extract a portion!) is not likely to save this company.

I'm sorry for the workers but this company is done. The sooner it's business can be wound down - so that it's contracts and workers can transfer to new, more productive uses - the better off everyone will be.

[Mike Elk - Huffpost Blogger]

I would say this is an unfair characteristic since Quad City is a state of the art facility. It only started losing bussiness this fall with the credit crunch leading to plummeting orders. We need facilities like Quad City for when the economy picks up. Otherwise we will just continue to burrow money to buy products from China.

[Gumpster]

Agree with you, JonLewis. There are probably hundreds of companies like QCDC that are cutting benefits, eliminating programs, laying off workers, etc. due to the economic slowdown. Shows the need for a national healthcare plan not dependent on employment.

[GardenerNorCal]

This is totally unacceptable. We are told all these bigshots deserve their bonuses and high salaries because of contracts, but the contracts of ordinary workers aren't to be recognized and respected by a firm that received bailout funds in order to continue to exist.

Instead of investigatng Steve Jobs health we should be investigating this sort of excess. This should be up above the fold not rolling down to the bottom of HuffPo.

[Mike Elk - Huffpost Blogger]

Good point brother! I think this story is much more important than how the recession is eliminating storylines from the porn industry. Also, why doesnt the Huffington Post have its own labor section? Why I am forced to file my stories under the bussiness section?

[GreatNews27]

I guess you haven't heard. Banks have been immunity from the laws of The United States. They can now make up their own rules as they go. I believe this was in the 'regulations' that our Unitary Executive signed.