And now the Marshall & Ilsley Bank, the biggest bank in the state – and with branches in other Midwestern states – gained another characteristic: The Sheet Metal Workers are leading a campaign to both reverse its sale to a bigger bank and to get people to yank their money from M&I.
The questions, revolving around M&I’s support for Walker’s anti-union crusade, were followed by rallies and protests Wednesday against M&I at branches in Wisconsin, the Twin Cities, Kansas City and elsewhere. Unionists cited these concerns:
• Campaign finance records show M&I executives contributed $46,308 to the successful campaign last year by Walker, who has spearheaded the nationwide Republican war to strip workers of their rights, particularly their collective bargaining rights. Half of all of M&I’s campaign money last year went to Walker, and its executives were his biggest corporate contributors. The Koch brothers, who made their money in oil, were second with $43,000.
• Despite privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution, M&I can sell its customers’ private information to third parties, without their consent. That’s what brought the Sheet Metal Workers into the fray, said spokesman Paul Pimentel. “Deep inside a supplemental document is language that strips these rights and gives M&I the right to sell or give away some of the most intimate details of a customer’s banking life including information identifying the customer, their address, assets and income, employment history, their medical information, information on accounts, transactions on those accounts and their use of the M&I website.”
• The bank, like many others nationwide, borrowed $1.75 billion from the U.S. government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program – otherwise known as the bank bailout – when the 2008 financial crisis hit. The difference: M&I hasn’t paid a cent back.
The unionists took this information to the Bank of Montreal’s meeting. They noted Bank of Montreal would be on the hook for the TARP money. They revealed the $18 million golden parachute for M&I CEO Mark Furlong, and $65 million in total severance pay for other M&I executives if the bank gets bought. And BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair noted the employment contracts for the execs call for M&I’s new owner to pick up the tax tab on those golden parachutes.
Besides the protest and questions raised at the Vancouver meeting, the Sheet Metal Workers and its allies are encouraging people to yank their money from M&I. The Fire Fighters led a crusade to do so at one M&I branch in Madison, forcing the branch to close temporarily.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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And now the Marshall & Ilsley Bank, the biggest bank in the state – and with branches in other Midwestern states – gained another characteristic: The Sheet Metal Workers are leading a campaign to both reverse its sale to a bigger bank and to get people to yank their money from M&I.
The unionists took their struggle international Tuesday, when unionists mobilized by the British Colombia Federation of Labour marched into the annual meeting of the Bank of Montreal, in Vancouver, B.C., to warn against that institution’s purchase of M&I. That event made the evening national news in Canada.
The questions, revolving around M&I’s support for Walker’s anti-union crusade, were followed by rallies and protests Wednesday against M&I at branches in Wisconsin, the Twin Cities, Kansas City and elsewhere. Unionists cited these concerns:
• Campaign finance records show M&I executives contributed $46,308 to the successful campaign last year by Walker, who has spearheaded the nationwide Republican war to strip workers of their rights, particularly their collective bargaining rights. Half of all of M&I’s campaign money last year went to Walker, and its executives were his biggest corporate contributors. The Koch brothers, who made their money in oil, were second with $43,000.
• Despite privacy laws and the U.S. Constitution, M&I can sell its customers’ private information to third parties, without their consent. That’s what brought the Sheet Metal Workers into the fray, said spokesman Paul Pimentel. “Deep inside a supplemental document is language that strips these rights and gives M&I the right to sell or give away some of the most intimate details of a customer’s banking life including information identifying the customer, their address, assets and income, employment history, their medical information, information on accounts, transactions on those accounts and their use of the M&I website.”
• The bank, like many others nationwide, borrowed $1.75 billion from the U.S. government’s Troubled Assets Relief Program – otherwise known as the bank bailout – when the 2008 financial crisis hit. The difference: M&I hasn’t paid a cent back.
The unionists took this information to the Bank of Montreal’s meeting. They noted Bank of Montreal would be on the hook for the TARP money. They revealed the $18 million golden parachute for M&I CEO Mark Furlong, and $65 million in total severance pay for other M&I executives if the bank gets bought. And BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair noted the employment contracts for the execs call for M&I’s new owner to pick up the tax tab on those golden parachutes.
Besides the protest and questions raised at the Vancouver meeting, the Sheet Metal Workers and its allies are encouraging people to yank their money from M&I. The Fire Fighters led a crusade to do so at one M&I branch in Madison, forcing the branch to close temporarily.
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.