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By Daniel Wiessner

May 20 (Reuters) - Workers at a fifth Wells Fargo Bank [RIC:RIC:WFC.UL] branch have ousted their union amid stalled contract negotiations, marking a reversal of momentum in an unprecedented foray by organized labor into retail banking.

The Communication Workers of America union relinquished its role as the bargaining representative of nine employees at a Wilmington, Delaware, branch last week after a worker there filed a petition to hold an election to decertify the union, the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation said on Monday.

Workers at the Wilmington branch had voted 5-0 in February 2024 to join the CWA, making it one of the first Wells Fargo branches to unionize. In all, hundreds of workers at 28 locations unionized in just over a year, a pace matched only by a nationwide labor campaign involving Starbucks.

At Wells Fargo, organizing efforts have largely focused on complaints about chronic understaffing, stagnant pay and constant sales pressure, amid ongoing fallout from the bank's unauthorized accounts scandal.

The Right to Work Foundation, which assists workers in disputes with unions including challenges to representation, represents the employee who filed the Wilmington petition and workers at three Wells Fargo branches in Florida and New Jersey who recently decertified their unions. Employees at a branch in Apex, North Carolina, ousted their union in March, and a petition for a decertification election at a Casper, Wyoming, branch is pending.

Wells Fargo in a statement said it was pleased that employees were able to exercise their right to decide whether or not to be represented by a union.

"We are committed to maintaining a culture where all employees continue to feel supported, valued and heard," the company said.

The CWA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

TEST CASE

Unionizing is rare in U.S. banking, with fewer than 1% of the industry's employees represented by unions, and the Wells Fargo campaign has been seen as a test of whether it could become more common.

But the momentum has shifted since CWA's early wins. There were only four elections at Wells Fargo branches in 2025, and workers rejected a union in the lone election held so far this year, at a branch in Connecticut.

The Right to Work Foundation's president, Mark Mix, said the group was poised to give free legal aid to more Wells Fargo workers.

"Clearly Wells Fargo employees across the country are coming to the realization that, despite CWA union bosses’ claims, they are better off without the union interfering in their relationship with their employer," Mix said in a statement.

Nick Weiner, the lead organizer of the CWA campaign, said before the petition was filed in Delaware that Wells Fargo had stepped up an anti-union campaign, which is the subject of dozens of complaints pending at the National Labor Relations Board. The union alleges that Wells Fargo has fired or disciplined union supporters and taken away benefits at unionized branches including flexible scheduling and premium pay for working on weekends.

Wells Fargo has generally denied wrongdoing. Nearly 20 of the complaints have been withdrawn or dismissed.

Weiner acknowledged workers' frustrations with the pace of negotiations at unionized branches, which have so far not yielded any contracts, but blamed Wells Fargo for intentionally slowing down the process. He said that included insisting on branch-by-branch bargaining even though the company is centrally managed and branch managers have no independent authority to make decisions.

Wells Fargo has said in labor board and securities filings that its representatives meet regularly with the CWA and that bargaining has been delayed by union officials and difficulties tied to negotiating some of the first-ever union contracts in the industry.

DROP IN ELECTIONS

The stalled organizing at Wells Fargo comes amid a broader decline in unionizing nationwide since President Donald Trump, a Republican, began his second term last year. The NLRB oversaw fewer than 1,500 union elections in 2025, a 30% decline from 2024 when elections reached a 10-year high, according to data compiled by the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

More than 600 union elections have been held in 2026 as of Tuesday, roughly tracking last year's pace, according to NLRB data.

Trump's efforts to reshape the labor board and eliminate its long-held independence from the White House may be taking a toll. Experts said the shift is pushing some workers away from organizing and forcing unions to rethink their strategies knowing they are likely to face an uphill battle before the board’s Republican majority.

"The administration’s actions didn’t stop workers from wanting unions, but they did make it more difficult for workers to win them," said Aurelia Glass, who compiled the data for the Center for American Progress.

Weiner, the CWA organizer, said that political and economic uncertainty and news of major companies cutting jobs may be discouraging workers from reaching out to unions.

"They can't even put their finger on it, but they're more nervous now," Weiner said. "The environment feels so much less supportive and welcoming."

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