Protests Planned for Banks’ Shareholder Meetings
April 8, 2010, 6:43 PM
A coalition of labor unions and liberal interest groups are taking to the streets in a number of demonstrations against Wall Street as the fight over financial reform heats up in Washington.
The groups are planning protests outside the annual meetings of several big banks, as well as marches in Washington and New York. They will speak out on an array of issues, from loan modifications for struggling homeowners to high credit card interest rates.
But the main impetus is ensuring tough new rules governing the financial industry are passed.
“Over the past year and a half, we had multiple mobilizations targeting Wall Street, but now that all eyes are focused on financial regulatory reform people want to see some results,” Marcus Mrowka, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, one of the groups leading the coalition, told DealBook.
The groups, ranging from church groups to veteran organizations, will hold small protests in their local communities and then converge in May for a demonstration in Washington. The coalition expects as many as 2,000 people to attend the latter, which will target lobbyists of the banking industry pushing back against tougher financial reform.
Protests are also being for the annual meetings of Bank of America in Charlotte, N.C. and Wells Fargo in San Francisco, with both firms targeted because of their extensive mortgage lending businesses and retail operations. (Last year, the S.E.I.U. led a protest outside Bank of America’s shareholder meeting and called for the resignation of the firm’s chief executive, Kenneth D. Lewis.)
The groups also plan to hold a march down Wall Street on April 29, with organizers expecting as many as 5,000 people in attendance.
Besides the S.E.I.U., other participating organizations include the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the National People’s Action, PICO National Network and the North Carolina United Power/IAF Southeast.
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