For 76 years, employees at U.S. Bank — formerly Firstar and, before that, First Wisconsin National Bank — have been represented by the independent Bank Employees Union-Milwaukee (BEU).

    Once known as the “Bank Employees Association,” the union represents professional employees with a range of titles and responsibilities — from bank tellers to branch-office personal bankers to mortgage division personnel to fraud-detection specialists.

    In short, they’re professionals who make the bank the local service provider that it is — and has been — for decades.

    “For a long time, the bank was run right here in Milwaukee — it was all local,” says Hady Bricco, a fraud analyst and BEU’s president. “And whatever gains we were able to make, as a union, that’s what they based increases for non-union employees.”


    And when merger mania shook the financial world in the 1980s, First Wisconsin wasn’t immune. The bank, which changed its name to the decidedly non-local Firstar in 1988, embarked on a series of mergers, culminating in the 2001 marriage with Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp that netted the bank its current name: U.S. Bank.

    BEU, whose membership more than halved during the mega-merger period, “started feeling a little bit of pressure,” Bricco says.

    “As the bank has gotten larger, and as they’ve demonstrated less and less respect for us as employees, we felt that it was time to look at our options,” she says. “We knew we didn’t want to get swallowed up by another union, so we thought about affiliating.”

    ‘It’s strength in numbers.’ But the union had to find the right partner. Bricco and the other eight members of BEU’s executive board believed they’d found a soul mate of an organization in AFSCME District Council 48, which also has deep roots in this community. A majority of BEU’s 500 members thought so, too. They recently voted overwhelmingly to affiliate with DC 48.

    By linking with AFSCME, the 500 bank employees knew they could maintain their own local-union autonomy. They’d continue to elect officers, vote on contracts and chart the course of union business at U.S. Bank.

    The only difference? They’d keep on fighting the good fight — for better wages, benefits and working conditions — as part of the largest public-service union in the country. What’s more, AFSCME’s part of the even larger AFL-CIO.

    t’s strength in numbers,” says Bricco, now president of AFSCME Local 777. “We also look forward to having AFSCME with us at the bargaining table, as well as at discipline hearings, to share their knowledge and know-how.”

    The partners in unionism began talking affiliation in early April, says DC 48 Organizer Pete Swinford.

    “Basically, it started with their executive board expressing a desire to affiliate with somebody,” he says. “Then they invited us, along with some other unions, to come and talk with them about who we are and what we do. So I went down and gave my ideas about why AFSCME would be a good fit.”

    So why would AFSCME be a good it?

    DC 48’s “very local,” as Swinford puts it. “We’re 11,000 strong right now in Milwaukee County. And our structure is such that they could retain their identity and fit in as a local union.”

    Then there was the resources and political clout that come with being part of AFSCME International, as well as the AFL-CIO.

    “You’re talking better strategic planning opportunities,” Swinford says.

    Conversely, the bank employees represented a good fit with DC 48. If AFSCME’s going to grow, it’ll be via private-sector organizing efforts (think child-care providers).

    “We also already have a lot of clerical employees represented, and some of them are private sector, too,” Swinford adds.

    Some obvious synergies. The potential synergies were obvious. And in June, the Bank Employees’ executive board voted unanimously to recommend to their member colleagues that it’d be in their best interest to affiliate with DC 48.

    They spent the next couple of months preaching the benefits of affiliation. They scheduled the affiliation vote for Sept. 29 at DC 48 headquarters and selected what a “neutral third party” to tally the votes, Swinford says.

    And once the tallying was done, the bank employees were members of DC 48.

    “Dear Bank Employees Union Member — we have great news!” reads the Oct. 5 letter the executive board sent to its members. “Nationally, AFSCME is America’s largest union. We initially endorsed affiliation with AFSCME because we believe the time has come for us to meet the bank’s growth with organizational growth of our own.”

    DC 48’s Calvin Lee was assigned to serve as the bank employees’ staff representative, members were told.

    They also learned their union would have a new name: Local 777, in honor of the address of the 42-story headquarters facility.

    It’s also the reclamation of an identity, of sorts, compared with the anything-but-local-sounding “Bank Employees Union” moniker they’ve had for most of the post-First Wisconsin era.

    Girding for battle in ‘08. In the coming months, DC 48’s Lee will help them with steward and officer training; they’ll also have to opportunity to receive treasurer’s training courtesy of DC 48.

    “Our challenge will be to help them strengthen their union internally and helping them prepare for the next contract,” Swinford says.

    The current pact expires in November 2008. When it comes time to convene at the negotiating table, Bricco and the Local 777 executive board say they’ll be ready.

    “Our last contract negotiation in 2006 was a turning point — they started talking about ‘takeaways,’ or taking away things that we’d worked for over the years,” Bricco says. “We could be facing a pretty big fight. I’m sure it’s coming.”

    She also knows they’ve got AFSCME on their side. As Bricco and the executive board put it in their Oct. 5 letter:

    “It has become sadly apparent that the respect we should receive as valuable employee has become less. We believe our affiliation with AFSCME will put us on the road to winning that back.”

    Here’s to respect ... to winning ... and to our new brothers and sisters. We’ve got your back, Local 777. You can bank on it.