The AFT, a 1.7 million-member national union, is dropping the bank as a recommended mortgage lender, to which it currently channels more than 20,000 AFT mortgages.
The decision came after Wells Fargo dismissed the union's request to cut lending ties with or impose new restrictions on firearms business partners following the mass shooting Feb. 14 that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
After attempts were made by the teachers union to meet with bank executives over the matter to no avail, AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement, obtained by reporter Charles Lane for NPR:
"Gun violence is an epidemic, but Tim Sloan [CEO of Wells Fargo] won't even engage in a conversation about mitigating it, much less take any real steps. We took him up on his offer to meet with us, then he went radio silent. So if Wells Fargo won't value children and teachers above guns, we won't do business with Wells Fargo."
