Exclusive: Wells Fargo loses teachers union AFT over ties to NRA, guns

Show Caption Hide Caption Florida school shooting fuels calls for #GunReformNow The deadly shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school is prompting renewed calls for more gun control.

Wells Fargo's financial relationship with gunmakers and the National Rifle Association has cost the bank its mortgage business with a major U.S. union.

The American Federation of Teachers notified the San Francisco-based financial giant Thursday that it is dropping the bank as a recommended mortgage lender for the national education union's 1.7 million members.

The action came after Wells Fargo spurned the union's call to cut lending ties with or impose new restrictions on firearms business partners after the mass shooting Feb. 14 that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan told AFT President Randi Weingarten in an April 3 letter obtained by USA TODAY that the best route to combating gun violence "is through the political and legislative process." Although Sloan suggested a meeting or conference call to discuss the matter, the sides never got together.

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AFT President Randi Weingarten told USA TODAY in an interview Thursday that Wells Fargo sent signals loud and clear through "radio silence."

And in a letter obtained by USA TODAY, Weingarten told Sloan on Thursday: "We can only assume that, in light of your silence and the NRA attacks, you have decided that the NRA business is more valuable to you than students and their educators are."

The AFT's dropping of Wells Fargo represents a financial blow to the nation's third-largest bank by assets. Wells Fargo's mortgage program had been featured in the Union Privilege program on the AFT website, and roughly 1,600 member families received mortgages from the bank in 2017. In all, more than 20,000 AFT members hold Wells Fargo mortgages.

"We essentially said you can have the mortgage business … or you can continue to value guns more than the people who serve in schools and the kids that have been affected by gun violence," Weingarten said in the interview.

Wells Fargo said in a statement that "we remain deeply committed to the financial success of teachers and all of our customers," but the bank declined to take action against gun interests.

"Wells Fargo wants schools and communities to be safe from gun violence, but changes to laws and regulations should be determined through a legislative process that gives the American public an opportunity to participate," the bank said. "We remain firm in our belief that the American public does not want banks to decide which legal products consumers can and cannot buy."

The severed ties between the union and the bank ups the ante in efforts to change businesses' policies toward gunmakers and retailers since the Florida high school massacre.

Amid calls and marches for stricter gun control, Wells Fargo's major banking rivals have announced they either would or already had taken action to limit their business exposure to the firearms industry.

JPMorgan Chase's chief financial officer said its business dealings with gunmakers "have come down significantly and are pretty limited." A Bank of America vice president said the company would no longer finance or underwrite military-style weapons. And Citigroup said it would require its business partners to bar firearm sales to customers under age 21, as well as those who have not passed background checks.

Businesses in other areas also are coming under pressure to cut ties to the gun rights lobby. Several major companies have stopped deals for members of the NRA, including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, Enterprise, Avis Budget, Hertz, TrueCar, MetLife and Symantec.

Major retailers also have taken a stand. Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart recently banned the sale of guns to anyone under 21. Dick's also ended sales of assault-style rifles, which Walmart already had done, and vowed to back policies banning them nationwide.

The NRA, which did not respond to a request for comment for this story, has bashed companies that severed ties to the interest group in recent weeks.

"Some corporations have decided to punish NRA membership in a shameful display of political and civic cowardice," the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action said in a statement in February.

The group said "the law-abiding members of the NRA had nothing at all to do with the failure of that school’s security preparedness, the failure of America’s mental health system, the failure of the National Instant Check System or the cruel failures of both federal and local law enforcement."

In addition to the move against Wells Fargo, Weingarten also called on pension asset managers to re-examine their investments by ruling out gun companies as too risky.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc.