American Federation of Teachers Cuts Ties with Wells Fargo for Not Abandoning NRA

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) cut ties with Wells Fargo Thursday over the bank’s refusal to end its relationship with the NRA.

AFT began this week by calling on school pension fund managers to divest of holdings in manufacturers who make “assault weapons” and they are ending it by suggesting Wells Fargo is either for teachers or against them.

In a letter obtained by Breitbart News, AFT makes clear they are chiefly distancing themselves from Wells Fargo because of the bank’s refusal to cease doing business with the NRA.

AFT president President Randi Weingarten said:

Gun violence is an epidemic, but [Wells Fargo CEO] Tim Sloan 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. It can be the bank for America’s teachers, or it can be the bank for the NRA and gun manufacturers.

Weingarten suggested other companies have “engaged in meaningful conversations about what responsible relationships with gun companies look like, but Wells Fargo won’t.”

He concluded, “We’re ending this relationship [with Wells Fargo] because we have a responsibility to our members and their students, who face potential gun violence every day. Gun violence is a public health epidemic, and in order to help stop it, we’ll stop the flow of resources to the companies that manufacture these weapons that have caused so much civilian carnage and death.”

On April 15, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Well Fargo stemmed the tide of corporate gun control by refusing to place news restrictions and/or regulations on customers who work in the gun industry. This immediately set Wells Fargo apart from Citibank and Bank of America, both of which adopted gun control policies for their customers involved with firearms.