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BUSINESS Saturday 28 September 2019
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In this April 10, 2019 file photo, Bank of New York Mellon
chairman and CEO Charles Scharf, left, testifies before the House
Financial Services Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in
Washington.
Associated Press
Wells Fargo hires This Sept. 20, 2019, photo, shows General Motors workers Matt Himes and Tammy Hudak in

Scharf as its new CEO Spring Hill, Tenn. Associated Press

New York Mellon’s Hope of coming back to shuttered

By KEN SWEET and MICHELLE CHAPMAN GM plant fades for workers
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo named its third CEO in as
many years as it attempts to move on from a series of By JOHN SEEWER, TOM KRISHER and at Lordstown making the Chevrolet Cru-
scandals. JONATHAN MATTISE ze compact car just two years ago.
The bank said Friday that Charles Scharf, chief executive TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — In the months since The wages would be much lower, too —
of the Bank of New York Mellon, will take over for C. Allen General Motors signaled the closing of as much as 50% below the $30-an-hour
Parker, who has led Wells Fargo since March. its huge car plant in Lordstown, Ohio, top pay now made by UAW production
Parker will remain in place until Scharf joins the bank on Tammy Hurst put off setting a wedding workers. As for the electric vehicle plant,
Oct. 21. date and watched her fiance, two sis- which would be run by a venture led by
Wells Fargo has been trying to recover from scandals ters, a brother and a nephew leave their a company called Workhorse, it is un-
starting in 2016 when it admitted its employees opened hometowns for new jobs. clear how many jobs would be created,
millions of fake checking accounts to meet sales goals. All five transferred to GM plants in Ken- how much they would pay and whether
The San Francisco-based bank has been fined repeat- tucky, Missouri and Tennessee, upend- the project will even get off the ground .
edly, including a record $1 billion penalty in 2018 levied ing her family and their weekly picnics, All of this means it’s doubtful any of the
by federal regulators for failures in its mortgage lending birthday parties and shopping outings. workers who have left Lordstown would
businesses and for selling auto loan customers insurance “We’ve always been within 20 minutes consider coming back.
policies they did not need. of each other, and now we’re all scat- “It doesn’t seem like it’s going to hap-
More importantly, the Federal Reserve last year stepped tered everywhere,” said Hurst, who is pen,” said Tommy Wolikow, who trans-
in and handcuffed Wells’ ability to grow its business until waiting to see if her fiance settles into his ferred to a GM factory in Flint, Michigan,
the bank proves it has gotten its house in order. new job in Kentucky before joining him. but held off on buying a home because
Tim Sloan, who had been Wells Fargo’s CEO since the As for the wedding, that, too, will have he hoped he could return to Ohio,
scandals originally broke, stepped down after what many to wait “until we figure out this mess.” where his 11-year-old daughter lives.
considered a poor performance defending the bank in Among the thousands of former Lord- “That’s home, and it’ll always be home
front of Congress in March. stown assembly plant workers now as long as my family is there.”
Scharf has been CEO of the decidedly uncontroversial spread across GM factories in seven Of the workers who once staffed the
Bank of New York Mellon since July 2017 and previously states, many were hoping that the au- plant around the clock, about 3,400
was the CEO of Visa. tomaker, facing pressure from President took GM up on transferring to factories
BNY focuses almost entirely on being what’s known as a Donald Trump, would agree during con- around the country, some as far away
custodial bank — holding large amounts of assets on be- tract talks to revive production that end- as Arlington, Texas, said Dave Green,
half of clients. It has no consumer banking business, which ed in March and rescue their old jobs. former president of the UAW local in
is Wells Fargo’s core franchise. But that hope is dwindling. Lordstown. The rest retired from GM or
BNY’s quiet nature was on display earlier this year, when Instead, GM wants to sell the plant to left the company and decided to stay
several of the big bank CEOs were dragged in front of a fledgling electric vehicle maker and in the area, largely for family reasons,
Congress to discuss how they were doing 10 years after build an electric vehicle battery factory he said. Tammy Hudak and Matt Himes,
the financial crisis. While members of Congress went af- that would probably be run by a GM who grew up the shadow of the 6-mil-
ter JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs’ David joint venture. The battery plant proposal lion-square-foot (560,000-square-meter)
Solomon, they mostly ignored Scharf and the CEO of his and the fate of the Lordstown plant are plant that defined Lordstown for gen-
primary competitor, State Street. playing out amid negotiations aimed at erations, are among those who pulled
Scharf will receive a hefty paycheck for joining Wells. The ending the strike by 49,000 members of up roots to work at GM in Spring Hill,
bank says he will earn a base salary of $2.5 million, plus the United Auto Workers that has para- Tennessee. Both are still waiting for the
a guaranteed $5 million bonus and $15.5 million in stock lyzed GM auto production nationwide rest of their families to join them. Hudak
awards that will vest over several years. for nearly two weeks. shed tears talking about being separat-
“Charlie is a proven leader and an experienced CEO How many UAW jobs the company ed from her loved ones, including a son
who has excelled at strategic leadership and execution would need for the battery plant hasn’t who is finishing high school. Himes’ wife
and is well-positioned to lead Wells Fargo’s continued been disclosed, but it’s likely to be a is still trying to sell their house, and he al-
transformation, said Wells Fargo Board Chair Betsy Duke few hundred at the start and won’t ever ready missed key moments of his son’s
in a prepared statement.q come close to the 4,500 who worked senior year. q