Reporting from Washington — Gabby Ornelas, a former teller at the giant Bank of America Corp., remembers the training sessions. And she remembers her marching orders: "Sell, sell, sell."
Ornelas was instructed to use her Spanish-language skills and Latino heritage to sign up customers for as many kinds of banking services as possible, she said -- services that led to lucrative fees for the bank and financial entanglement for many customers.
"We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn't understand how to use them," said Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.
In one case, she described a Central American mother of three who came back to see her at the bank, distressed about $300 in overdraft fees incurred after Ornelas persuaded the woman to open a second checking account.
Ornelas and eight of her colleagues leveled the accusations in recent interviews. They are being backed in their whistle-blowing by the Service Employees International Union, which is trying to organize BofA, the nation's largest bank.
Bank of America officials flatly rejected the allegations, saying their policies are legal, adhere to industry standards and are helpful to customers, including immigrants seeking a toehold in the United States.
"Bank of America believes the SEIU's claims misrepresent the bank's relationship with its customers and its associates," said Anne Pace, a bank spokeswoman.
The former workers said they were going public to lay out what they saw as a little-known side of BofA's business model: encouraging working-class customers to sign up for high-interest-rate credit and cash advance services and structuring an array of check and debit card services to maximize overdraft fees and other charges.
The campaign will be launched publicly this week, with workers scheduled to tell their stories in news conference calls and meetings with members of Congress. The union is seeking to pressure the bank and to build support for legislation now stalled in the Senate that would make it easier for union members to organize.
BofA said the former employees were a disgruntled minority and that internal surveys showed that most employees of the company were overwhelmingly satisfied.
