Protesters demand reform from Chase Bank

On the heels of the nationwide Tax Day “tea parties” comes a group of protesters who want JP Morgan Chase and its subsidiaries to be held accountable for the economic crisis.

About 40 people attended a short demonstration in response to how Chase is handling the $25 billion in bailout money it has received at noon Thursday in front of Chase Bank on College Avenue.

“It’s one thing for banks to be sticking consumers with every strategy possible to get money,” said Julie Popper of the Change That Works organization, which was responsible for organizing the overnight protest. “But as taxpayers and shareholders, you and I own this bank. They need to stop paying us pennies on the dollar, stop lobbying against fights for fair protection of banks and just stop screwing us over.”

Popper and the demonstrators who were present at the protest are advocates of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would improve worker wages and benefits.
She said customers are not the only people getting “screwed over” by banks like Chase.

“The average teller makes $10.42 an hour, while their CEO made $27 million last year,” Popper said. “So essentially, they are not only lobbying against us, but their own workers, and many are too afraid to say anything for fear of losing employment.”

Popper said one solution would be unionization, which she said is good for the economy but is a process that often gets overlooked by CEOs.

“We tend to gripe alone,” she said. “If there were other people who joined together in the fact that it’s not right that banks double our interest rates, that we can’t afford silly $3 ATM charges, then there would be some common ground. People would have choices.”

Amid cries of “JP Morgan is a clown” and “We’re overworked and underpaid, all we want is Free Choice Act” from the crowd, lifelong Bloomington resident and Change That Works volunteer Jonathan Piland said he came to protest because American
taxpayers and employees need to be heard.

“We need to make people realize that banks are wrong,” he said, pointing toward the Chase Bank tower. “The CEOs in leather chairs won’t hear our voice if we don’t make ourselves heard. Not just for you or me, but for everyone, including those people inside afraid to come out and join us.”

Piland said employers always have a voice, and he hopes President Barack Obama’s plans for reform can change things by valuing decisions of American employees.

Jonathan Hall, senior director of Change That Works, cited his own upbringing as his reason for joining the organized protest.

“My family and many other families, especially in southern Indiana, have been barring our way into middle class from lower middle class status for years,” he said. “It needs to start with the banks and then the government, to recognize that the people who work the hardest need the most support.”

Hall said he and other members of Change That Works plan to reach out to other banks that continuously abuse the system.

“The line of trust with banks is already low because of everything that goes on with AIG,” he said. “The fact that Chase is not doing what it claims to be doing with all the money it receives from us, not to mention the ways they get money wrongfully, needs to be contested. It certainly isn’t helping Americans trust any financial institution.”

Pam Warren, Bloomington resident and volunteer with Organizing for America, shared a story about her daughter.

“She paid her mortgage through Chase one month,” Warren said. “And they took out that payment twice from her account and refused to replace the money. She lives within her means, but she certainly can’t afford to pay the same mortgage twice in a month.”

Warren said she was also an advocate for unionization of workers as a solution.

“People must contact Sen. Evan Bayh if they want change in the state of Indiana,” she said. “We can only hope that he is a true advocate for laborers, like he says. Maybe then a lot of this won’t happen, but people have to act.”

Chase representatives declined to comment for this story.