California-based bank Beneficial, which was co-founded by billionaire Tom Steyer, a philanthropist who recently dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 US Presidential Election, has opened its doors to the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The trade union relied on the work done by the Committee for Better Banks, a coalition of employees, unions, consumer groups and churches set up in 2014 to address the lack of union presence in the banking profession. The CWA says its presence at Beneficial represents a historic victory in the banking sector but adds that there is still a long way to go.
More than 100 employees of a small California bank, Beneficial State Bank, have just joined a union, the Communications Workers of America, which has called the development a historic victory. The US finance sector has a very low level of employee organisation, with a unionisation rate of just 1.1%. You have to go back 40 years to find an instance of a bank recognising employee organisation. One of the few other examples of a financial institution that has opened itself up to union presence is
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