Feb 4 chase action

CHASE RUNS BUT CAN’T HIDE

February 4, 2011 Nationwide Actions at Chase Branches

February 24 – Community activists, worker advocates, and religious leaders gathered outside nearly 200 Chase Bank locations from coast to coast in a second nationwide protest against the banking giant’s mistreatment of its customers and communities.

Springfield Central Labor Council braving the cold to spread the message!

FLOC staff "bannering" in Colombus OH

“Foreclosures are a plague on families and communities. It cannot be in any bank’s best interest to pursue a policy that leaves so many people and communities in ruins – and for a bank like Chase that professes to be a good citizen, tearing families and communities apart is morally indefensible.”Rev. Charles Williams, Sr., People Before Banks

Braving conditions that in some places included rain, snow, or icy winds the protesters carried banners and distributed leaflets that detailed JP Morgan Chase Bank’s even colder actions – both as the foreclosure leader among all of America’s big banks and as a major financier of RJ Reynolds, one of the nation’s largest tobacco companies, which sits at the top of and reaps its profits from an industry known for documented human rights abuses.

Peggy Ortega-Camacho and Brendan Griffith, from the New York City Central Labor Council hold a banner in front of JP Morgan Chase HQ in Manhattan

“I’ve seen, with my own eyes, the dangerous and inhumane conditions imposed on the workers who tend and harvest the tobacco crop. Both Chase and RJ Reynolds profit from the labor of these exploited workers and have it in their power to play a decisive role in ending the abuses.” Cecil Roberts, International President, United Mine Workers of America

“We’re asking the public to join us in urging JP Morgan Chase bank to commit to ending human rights abuses in America’s tobacco fields.” Baldemar Velasquez, President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC)

David Wildman and his son David in front of the JP Morgan Chase HQ

Join us on March 18, as we continue to build on the Campaign with another Day of Action, duplicating these actions across the United States! Contact us at flocnc@floc.com for more information.

Members of the Springfield Central Labor Council leafleting

Members of the Sacramento Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO

Farm Labor Organizing Committee FLOC, AFL-CIO

...called upon to challenge the deplorable conditions of the broader workforce that remains voiceless, powerless, and invisible to mainstream America...