Here’s a report-back from a Chase branch protest in San Jose last week:
At 3:00 PM eight of us headed to the branch office at 55 West Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA (near Downtown San Jose). Three of us went into the bank and talked to the tellers, handed them the bi-fold handouts and asked that they contact CEO Jamie Diamon and demand that Chase stop funding MTR. I requested to see the branch manager the other two were talking to tellers, and did the same. Responses were unsurprisingly very neutral. We then exited the office and joined the rest of the group outside.
While we were in the bank the remaining five had deployed the banner and began approaching every Chase customer that walked into and out of the bank. In the 1.5 hours that we were at Chase we talked to almost every customer that visited bank from 3:30 to 5:00 PM (which we estimate to be approximately 50). Upon explaining MTR, the fact that Chase has given over $8.5 trillion in financing, and that BoA, Wells Fargo, and Credit Suisse had committed to no longer funding the practice, most customers were genuinely distraught. We asked that they too demand Chase stop funding MTR and in several situations customers actually asked us “Well, should I change banks?” To which we responded, “Yes. You wouldn’t be the first!”