Protesters to Gather in Pasadena, March on Home of Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan Today

Protesters representing a coalition of activist groups plan to gather in West Pasadena this afternoon and then caravan to the San Marino home of Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan to demand that the bank stop funding the Dakota Access Pipeline and commit to protections for customers and bank workers, an organizer said.

Peter Kuhn of Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment said demonstrators plan to carry puppets, life-size replica of a section of an oil pipeline, and other props, despite a San Marino city ordinance which bars protests on public sidewalks in front of the homes of the city’s many top executives and investors.

Kuhn said the protesters and speakers will congregate in the parking lot at the Orangewood Center at 155 East California Boulevard in Pasadena at 4:30 p.m.

Sloan was elected chief executive officer of Wells Fargo & Company and a member of the Board of Directors in October 2016. He became president in November 2015. Sloan has reportedly maintained his primary residence in San Marino for some time.

San Marino police have made no public comment in regards to the planned demonstration, but apparently are aware of it.

Leaders of Sunday’s protest said they will demand that Sloan – a long-time top Wells Fargo executive who became CEO after the forced resignation of John Stumpf last year – agree to the following changes at the country’s second largest bank:

•immediately stop funding the Dakota Access Pipeline and all other oil pipeline projects, which promote continued dependence on dependence on fossil fuels as the world approaches a crisis point for climate change – and which threaten indigenous water supplies and sacred sites
•agree to a set of corporate responsibility standards designed by front-line bank workers, many of whom will be present at the protest, to root out Wells Fargo’s lingering sales goals culture and improve protections for consumers and working conditions/compensation for workers. Despite announcing a formal end to sales goals last year, Wells Fargo employees in some regions describe an ongoing push to sell unnecessary products to customers, now coded as expectations around “relationship-building.”

•agree to loan modification and principal reduction programs for at-risk homeowners that extend far beyond what the bank has implemented to date.Wells Fargo residential loan customers continue to complain about the bank’s pattern of improperly foreclosing on homeowners after failing to correctly assess their eligibility for loan modifications and principal reduction

Sunday’s protest is sponsored by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Climate Hawks Vote, Committee for Better Banks, Communication Workers of America (CWA), Food and Water Watch, Occupy Fights Foreclosures, and Our Revolution Los Angeles.