1 out of 3 Bank Tellers in NY on Public Assistance

[mother earth]

A portion of interview:

AXT: Yes. I mean, what we're talking about here are jobs that the public generally perceives to be entry-level jobs on a path to a professional career. And what they really are, often, is completely dead-end jobs, where workers are trapped in forcibly part-timed work, low-wage work, with high-pressure sales goals, sometimes wage theft, even. And, you know, these are really rough jobs. Workers report often being pressured to sell deals, products, bank accounts, credit cards that are not necessarily in the best interests of the clients, and that they realize this is true but have no ability to blow the whistle on these kinds of unethical practices at the banks.

DESVARIEUX: So what are your recommendations for alleviating some of these issues?

AXT: Well, the first thing is that we need to make sure that that workers have a path to speak out. We need to make sure that there are whistleblower protections in place in states and cities like New York and that we don't give out subsidies. Right now we're giving out hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to big banks in New York City and New York State alone with very little accountability for the job creation goals that are involved in those deals, and certainly with no checks with workers to make sure that they are being treated well and that their jobs are helping to lift people out of poverty.

DESVARIEUX: I'm sure there are some people listen to this saying that at the end of the day there needs to be some form of unionization. Is that your ultimate goal? Are you hoping that tellers eventually will organize themselves to form a union?

AXT: Make the Road, New York Communities for Change, ALIGN, and CWA that form the Committee for Better Banks have certainly had a long history of helping workers to organize into worker centers, into unions where appropriate. And so we believe strongly that workers need the right to organize and that they should be supported by the community members that we represent as well. And so we are here and would have their backs if that's what they choose.

This is just the first step at looking at this industry. We have been actively organizing in car washes and supermarkets and in fast food restaurants, but we've just turned our attention to the banking industry to see what was going on with workers there and were shocked to discover that the treatment in the banking industry is much like the treatment in other exploitative low-wage industries. But this is a place that you wouldn't expect it. This is the place where the boss, the CEO, is actually the boss of capitalism, right, the boss of our international economic system. You know, they're billionaires. They are well compensated. This is an industry that certainly can afford to treat workers properly, to treat workers with dignity.

-----

Doesn't it make you all warm and fuzzy about the recent job reports? Yeah, new jobs are being created, new ones to make sure only the wealthy are well compensated, the majority will continue as the working poor. Entitlements? Oh, yeah, entitlements continue for the oligarchy. The economy is doing much better, much better for the same 1% who are absolutely thriving!

[rocktivity]

1. TRANSLATION: 1 out 3 bank tellers in NY are at risk

of becoming bank robbers.


rocktivity

[Thinkingabout]

2. We should have a systrm in place where someone goes in to apply for food stamps, etc the

Name of the employer must be given and just like requiring names of fathers and it would provide information to the agency to seek payment of assistance from the employer when the wages ate so low the worker is entitled to receive public assistance.

[enough]

4. An interesing idea. (nt)

[valerief]

3. That's because banks don't have any money.

[ReRe]

5. Figures.