4 October, 2010
The US United Autoworkers’ Union (UAW) will divest hundreds of millions of dollars from JPMorgan Chase over the bank’s refusal to implement a two-year moratorium on housing foreclosures in the state of Michigan. The divestiture of pension, health care, and other union-managed funds from the New York-based bank is also due to Chase’s ties to the RJ Reynolds Group, and that company’s treatment of low-wage farm workers in the US state of North Carolina.
At a press conference on 24 September in Detroit, UAW President Bob King was joined by church and American farm-labour leaders in calling for a full citizens’ boycott of JPMorgan Chase. King and a coalition of civil society leaders from Michigan met with bank officials in June following a protest and requested a moratorium on home foreclosures of unemployed workers.
UAW President Bob King
At a follow up meeting, UAW and religious leaders called on Chase to join President Barack Obama’s Hardest Hit Homeowners programme and declare a temporary freeze on foreclosures. Although the bank made a good-faith promise to continue the dialogue with the social partners, the bank “has since failed to communicate its intentions regarding any of the issues raised,” said the UAW.
At the press conference ten days ago, US Farm Labour Organising Committee President Baldemar Velasquez detailed low wages, unsanitary conditions, and the Reynolds Group’s hindrance of trade union organizing rights for tobacco workers.
King said Americans “have a moral responsibility to step up” and join the boycott. “Chase needs to help unemployed homeowners in Michigan and underpaid farm workers in the Carolinas,” stated King. “The bank could make a huge difference by suspending foreclosures and pressuring RJ Reynolds to do the right thing.”