Evidently, the ayes didn’t have it among the bankers of Bethel. The man trying to organize five non-managerial employees at the Wells Fargo Bank in the western Alaska hub community has withdrawn his intent to hold a vote to unionize.
Walker Sexton, a personal banker, had filed notice of a union election to join Communications Workers of America’s Wells Fargo Workers United cancelled their vote on Wednesday, the day that a Wells branch in Albuquerque, N.M., voted to create the first unionized branch of any major U.S. bank. Communications Workers of America is a division of UNI Global Union, an international union that is a staunch critic of Israel and that does not condemn Hamas terrorist operations.
The abandonment of the union vote effort left Rep. Mary Peltola holding the bag. The “worker power” effort had the full support of Peltola, who wrote last month, “Worker power doesn’t stop where the road system ends. I’m excited to see workers standing together in my hometown of Bethel.”
But not everyone in the bank seems to have agreed with Peltola.
“Although those of us at the Bethel branch have decided to withdraw our petition and hold on moving forward with a union election at this time, our values have not changed,” Sexton told reporters, not revealing the cause but saying they needed time to get on the “same page.”
Workers can apply for another vote after six months, right before the August primary election.
