Lawmakers praise workers for landmark Wells Fargo union branch vote in New Mexico

WASHINGTON — Democratic lawmakers on Thursday praised workers at a New Mexico branch of Wells Fargo for becoming the first branch of the nation’s fourth-largest bank to unionize.

“Your success brings the fight for the Dignity of Work directly to Wall Street’s front door,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

“I look forward to watching your movement grow from branch to branch across the country,” Brown said in his statement.

Workers at the bank’s Albuquerque branch voted 5 to 3 on Wednesday to unionize under the Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United.

The vote made Wells Fargo the first major U.S. lender with a unionized workforce.

“This is the first union at a big bank in the country! #UnionStrong,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a New Mexico Democrat, wrote in a post on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The organizing move follows successful negotiations by the United Auto Workers, SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America after weeks of strikes earlier this year.

But workers at an Alaska Wells Fargo branch last week withdrew a petition to form a union.

Wells Fargo was among the banks eyed in an industry-wide investigation into discriminatory mortgage lending in 2022.

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