Yesterday in San Francisco, over a thousand peaceful protesters arrived at the Wells Fargo annual meeting to speak with Wells top management. The seating capacity was just 250 people and all but 20 - 30 protesters were turned away, as Wells filled the room with their own employees.
Outside, a coalition of 30 religious leaders, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, joined with community activists and labor organizations to make an appeal to Wells. Their primary causes were for Wells to halt home foreclosures, provide debt forgiveness to underwater borrowers and for Wells to stop funding payday loans (which are done at extremely high interest rates).
A Wells annual meeting typically lasts 2 1/2 hours but this one ended in 45 minutes, and Wells management eliminated the Q and A which are standard at annual meetings of publicly held companies.
To me, this whole affair was a positive development because a wide variety of people got together to peacefully confront this corporate giant. And although this giant avoided them, it let its Board of Directors and management know that people are seeking a voice in Wells' sometimes callous policies, seeking accountability and under no circumstance as taxpayers, want to bail Wells out again as a "too big to fail" giant.
Dick
To learn more, please see http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2012/04/24/2494986/wells-fargo-annual-meeting-disrupted.html
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