Bank workers at a Wells Fargo branch in Apopka have officially gone public with their desire to join Wells Fargo United, a union affiliated with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). This makes them the second Wells Fargo branch in Florida to seek unionization, and one of just a few nationwide.
“We continually face inadequate staffing that not only strains our ability to perform our duties effectively but undermines the quality of service we can offer to our customers,” said Noell Calas, an associate personal banker at the Apopka branch, in a prepared statement.
“Many of us have been serving Wells Fargo and its customers for over a decade with little to show for it,” Calas continued. “We are certain that through a union, we can establish a dialogue that is both respected and acted upon, ensuring that our voices are not just heard, but part of the decision-making process that affects our day-to-day life.”
Bank workers at the Apopka branch, located northwest of Orlando at 2222 E. Semoran Blvd., filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board last Wednesday — a move that triggers the process of scheduling a union election.
In an open letter to Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf, the Apopka team told Scharf that their branch — like others similarly pushing for unionization — has suffered from short-staffing, an issue they haven’t been able to resolve through existing channels for communication. They also say their current compensation levels leave them feeling “underpaid and undervalued.”
“Our aim is not to disrupt, but to enhance our working environment to benefit everyone,” reads the letter, posted online by the Committee for Better Banks, a coalition of groups fighting to organize for better wages, working conditions, and a voice on the job in the banking industry.
“Our aim is not to disrupt, but to enhance our working environment to benefit everyone”
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According to the Orlando Business Journal, Wells Fargo is the third-largest bank in the Orlando metro area, with $14.48 billion in deposits as of June 30, 2023. It’s also largely nonunion, although it’s possible that could change.
Nick Weiner, a lead organizer with the CWA, told Orlando Weekly that organizing efforts at Wells Fargo branches have been “spreading like wildfire” in recent months, with branches all across the country reaching out to the union for more information.
“They never thought that they could organize a union,” said Weiner, who has communicated with workers over platforms like Zoom. “They didn’t know that other people felt the same way.”
Just 1.7% of finance employees in the United States have union representation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wells Fargo, primarily a domestic bank, is the only major bank in the U.S. with unionized branches — and even that is only a very recent development.
A Wells Fargo branch in Albuquerque, New Mexico, became the first unionized Wells Fargo branch in the country after branch employees voted to join the CWA in December 2023. Workers at a Wells Fargo branch in Daytona Beach next voted to unionize in January, after going public with their union drive the month prior.
The Daytona Beach branch, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is the first and only unionized Wells Fargo branch in Florida, and one of just four nationwide.
Two other branches (in Wilmington, Delaware, and Virginia Beach) have similarly voted to unionize, all with bargaining units of just five to eight employees each. Another branch in Alaska withdrew their petition to unionize late last year, according to NLRB records, and one branch in Atwater, California, narrowly voted against unionization in a 3–1 vote last month.
Wells Fargo, evidently scared by the idea of a union drive spreading across their branches, has been playing hardball. The union has accused Wells Fargo of deploying a number of union-busting tactics over the course of the national organizing drive, from illegally disciplining and threatening workers involved in organizing to flying in labor consultants from out of state to convince workers they don’t need a union.
Corinne Jefferson, a bank worker at the recently unionized branch in Daytona Beach, told Orlando Weekly in December that a “business executive consultant” from New York, employed by Wells Fargo, had been handing out anti-union flyers around her branch with ominous warnings about unionization.
“They’re not really giving true information,” Jefferson said of the flyers. “It’s kind of just trying to discourage the employees to back down.”
Weiner, who’s based in Washington, D.C., told Orlando Weekly that this has been a regular schtick since the launch of the national union drive: Wells Fargo will direct high-level HR people or district managers who have rarely actually visited the branches before to essentially camp out in those that have gone public with their intentions to unionize. Their goal, said Weiner, “is to sow seeds of doubt in the workers.”
Wells Fargo has, so far, refused to bend the knee to Wells Fargo branches that have requested voluntary union recognition from their employer, which would allow employees the chance to avoid an election process.
The other option, in lieu of voluntary recognition, is to file for a union election with the NLRB, which requires gathering signatures from at least 30% of employees in support of unionization. A simple majority of workers must then vote in favor of unionization for the union to be victorious.
Wells Fargo told Orlando Weekly in a statement: “We respect our employees’ rights to vote for union representation. At the same time, we continue to believe our employees are best served by working directly with the Company and its leadership.”
New organizing in a state like Florida — which has multiple anti-union policies on the books that render organizing a challenge — is a rarity, particularly in the private sector. Less than 4% of Florida’s private sector is unionized, compared to 26% of the public sector.
Even so, Central Florida is its own rare bastion of private sector union power, compared to the rest of the state. The region is home to tens of thousands of unionized Disney World employees (represented by a coalition of labor unions) and one of Florida’s only unionized Starbucks locations. There’s also a union presence at Orlando International Airport (Unite Here, 32BJ SEIU, plus the pilot and flight attendant unions), the United Parcel Service (Teamsters), the Orange County Convention Center (Unite Here), carmaker Stellantis’ Orlando auto parts depot (United Auto Workers) and elsewhere.
Weiner said that organizing campaigns at places like Starbucks — as well as banking labor unions in other parts of the world — have inspired Wells Fargo employees to organize for better working conditions, to support jobs they don’t want to leave and to have a voice on the job themselves.
The union election at the Apopka Wells Fargo branch is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.
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McKenna Schueler
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