Entrepreneur, labor leader want city to stop doing business with Wells Fargo

David Rolf, SEIU #775 president and SEIU International vice president, launches petition asking city of Seattle to stop doing business with Wells Fargo Bank. He is joined by Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer.

David Rolf, SEIU #775 president and SEIU International vice president, launches petition asking city of Seattle to stop doing business with Wells Fargo Bank. He is joined by Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Entrepreneur, labor leader want city to stop doing business with Wells Fargo 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The city of Seattle should stop banking with Wells Fargo due to the ongoing scandal over the bank's creation of as many as 2 million unauthorized accounts, says an online petition launched by a local entrepreneur and an influential labor leader.

The petition, the work of businessman Nick Hanauer and SEIU Local 775 president David Rolf, reads: "We urge the City of Seattle to stop doing business with Wells Fargo, and to move its accounts to a more responsible progressive or depositor-owned financial institution."

The petition, Rolf said Friday, follows action by California State Treasurer John Chiang, who suspended Wells Fargo's "highly profitable business relationships" with the Golden State for one year, or beyond that if Chiang finds that the big bank has "reengaged in the same behavior."

Chiang has already excluded Wells Fargo from two large municipal bond transactions.

"If cities, states, investment funds and philanthropies across the country were to do this, it would give Wells Fargo the choice of changing how it does business, or going out of business," Rolf argued.

Hanauer and Rolf are local collaborators and national leaders in the drive for a higher minimum wage. Hanauer and Rolf's union are top financial backers of Initiative 1433 on the November ballot. The measure ramp up the state minimum wage to $13.50 by 2020.

Seattle city government is known for its stress of symbolism.

Whether it's circus animals or Occupy Seattle, ditching Columbus Day or embracing Native American protests against a North Dakota pipeline, the Seattle City Council has rarely hesitated to trot out multiple "Whereas" clauses and send demonstrators home happy.

Rolf, who co-chaired Mayor Ed Murray's minimum wage task force, argued that this protest could actually have an impact on how banks treat customers.

"It is symbolic if Seattle is the one city that does it: If cities across the country do it, it may have an impact," he said.

"Back in days of the Occupy movement, we looked at a bank boycott. The problem was that we could not discern differences in behavior between all the big bad banks. Now, with what we have seen with Wells Fargo, there is a difference."

Wells Fargo's chairman/CEO John G. Stumpf has lately been pummeled by both U.S. Senate and House committees, taking hits from liberal U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Tea Party aligned Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.

The bank has been penalized $185 million for its sales tactics. Stumpf is likely to forfeit $41 million in bonuses and stock options plus a portion of his $2.8 million base salary. The bank has fired 5,300 employees, although none of its top managers.

Carrie Tolstedt, the senior executive overseeing the unit responsible for the unauthorized accounts, is retiring but stands likely to receive a golden parachute of as much as $125 million in stock and options.

Stump told the House Financial Services Committee that he is "deeply sorry" and will "accept full responsibility for all unethical sales practices." He said that the San Francisco-based bank will immediately cease product sales goals for its employees.

Sen. Warren has not been satisfied, saying in a statement Wednesday that Stumpf should resign and "return every nickel he made while this scam was ongoing."

The Rolf-Hanauer petition is pretty tough.

"Wells Fargo recently committed unprecedented fraud against American families by illegally opening millions of unauthorized accounts," it says. "The bank charged customers fees and fines on these accounts, and many Well Fargo customers will now suffer the long-term consequences of damaged credit histories."