Teamsters Protest KeyBank at Arena

Bank Supports Labor Rights Violator Oak Harbor Freight Lines

Teamster members on strike at Oak Harbor Freight Lines protested outside of KeyArena in Seattle today. KeyBank, the corporate sponsor of KeyArena, is the main financier of Oak Harbor Freight Lines, where more than 600 Teamsters in the Northwest have been on strike for the past 12 weeks because of unfair labor practices by the company.

"We went to KeyArena to alert consumers that KeyBank doesn't want to help Washington families," said Al Hobart, Teamsters International Vice President and President of Teamsters Joint Council 28. "This bank supports the unfair labor practice strike we have at Oak Harbor, but they also cheat customers and lobby against Americans facing foreclosures."

The Consumer Federation of America reported that KeyBank uses deceptive practices to charge excessive and hidden overdraft fees. Worse, KeyBank sits on the board of several mortgage industry associations that fought to stop a Senate bill that would have prevented well over 1.2 million home foreclosures and avoided property declines of $200 billion.

"People need to know that KeyBank finances Oak Harbor Freight Lines," said Marv Deegan a retired Oak Harbor Freight employee. "Since Oak Harbor cut off our health care, I have to decide whether to eat or to pay my insurance premium. This is a terrible hardship for my family."

For the past 12 weeks, Teamster members have been walking strike lines in the Seattle area, and Portland. Soon after the strike began Oak Harbor announced they were ending the health care payments of striking workers and the retirees.

"It's cruel that any company could dump the health care of their retirees to the side of the road, but that's what Oak Harbor Freight has done," Hobart said. "And KeyBank is an equal partner with Oak Harbor in doling out hardship to families."