Union Sees Dollar Signs in Bank Workers

A two-million member union representing service workers sees dollar signs in bank employees.

The Service Employees International Union, or the SEIU, is setting its sights on unionizing "front-line financial workers," to help win better salaries, benefits and other working conditions. SEIU was joined by Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.) on Tuesday to made its case for organizing Bank of America (BAC Quote) employees on a conference call with reporters.

While SEIU wraps its arguments in a cloak of morality, the ultimate goal is profitability. There were 608,000 tellers in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the occupation is expected to grow another 13% by 2016. That's a lot of potential union dues. Ellison, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, counts unions as three of the top five contributors to his campaigns, according to OpenSecrets.org.

But at what cost does organizing bank workers come?

First off, consider that unions tend to go on strike when its workers become unhappy? SEIU Spokesman Ali Jost says strikes are "one single fold in one fan of many options." But can there be a more destabilizing effect on banks than tellers walking out on strike?

Stephen Lerner, who is organizing the bank campaign for SEIU, says the union wants to "give a voice" to workers after hearing from tellers that they were under enormous pressure to pitch products they felt weren't good for customers, like overdraft protection and high-fee credit cards. Lerner thinks commission sales should be removed from the banking system and replaced with a higher salary. But remember, these employees were more than happy to earn commission sales for these products when times were good.