ACCE Launches Campaign for Bank Responsibility

On Thursday, July 8  some 100 members of ACCE, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the California School Employees Association (CSEA), joined by supporters from One LA, the LA County Federation of Labor, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), Ruatch Christian Fellowship, the LA Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), moved bedroom furniture into the lobby of JP Morgan Chase California Chairman Peter Barker to demand that Chase negotiate affordable permanent loan modifications for homeowners like us.

Inside the JP Morgan Chase building, we heard stories from homeowners like Dora Holliday, a 69 year old in-home care worker who has lived in her Compton home for over 38 years, and has spent over a year attempting to get the bank to respond to requests for a decent loan modification - without missing one payment. We also heard from Deborah and Tommy Beard. He works as a teacher assistant, and he is a hospital cook; they've been trying to get JP Morgan Chase to offer an affordable permanent modification for well over a year. Chase is now returning their payments - even though they haven't missed a payment in over a year.

On Thursday, homeowners from across LA, and members of the news media, listened to our stories and heard a prepared response from Gary Kishner, JP Morgan Chase Vice President for Communications, that made it clear that we haven't yet gotten to the right decision-makers at Chase officials that can review and improve the bank's policies. However, JP Morgan Chase heard our voice loud and clear, and we're not planning on stopping until we meet with top bank officials and get them to agree on changes that will help us and millions of other hardworking JP Morgan Chase customers stay in our homes.

You can read coverage (in Spanish) of the action in La Opinion by clicking here

Stay tuned for the next steps on the campaign!