Spring Hill Wells Fargo Branch Parts Ways With Union Representation

The Communications Workers of America chose to abandon the Spring Hill Wells Fargo branch at Lakewood Plaza rather than face a decertification vote, ending its role there without a single ballot being cast.

The CWA filed what the National Labor Relations Board describes as a "disclaimer of interest" on March 27, a legal maneuver that bypasses an election entirely: the union formally declares it no longer seeks to represent workers at a specific location, and the NLRB's acknowledgment makes it final. That filing canceled a federally supervised decertification election that had been scheduled for March 30 and stripped the CWA of its "exclusive representative" status at the branch, meaning the union can no longer negotiate contracts or bargain on behalf of employees there.

The push to remove the union was led by Virginia Fenton, a bank employee at the branch, who filed the decertification petition earlier in March with legal support from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Under NLRB rules, a petition requires signatures from a sufficient share of the bargaining unit before the board will schedule a vote. Fenton cleared that threshold, triggering the process that ultimately prompted the union to step aside.

The CWA had organized the Spring Hill location under the banner of Wells Fargo Workers United, part of a broader effort that has made Wells Fargo the only major U.S. bank with unionized branches. Workers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, cast the first vote to join the CWA in 2023. Since then, roughly 30 branches and about 200 workers have followed, including the Apopka, Florida, location, which voted unanimously to join the union and became its sixth certified branch. Those 200 workers represent a small fraction of Wells Fargo's 217,000 employees.

Spring Hill's outcome is part of a wave of reversals in early 2026. Employees at the Apex, North Carolina, Wells Fargo branch voted 5-2 in March to decertify the CWA in a formal ballot, and workers at a Casper, Wyoming, location, led by employee Megan Wright, filed their own decertification petition around the same time.

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Foundation, said the CWA's campaign "started with great fanfare" but that employees across the country "seem to be coming to the conclusion that they would be better off without the union." His organization's legal defense arm backed Fenton's petition in Spring Hill and the Casper effort.

Florida's right-to-work status already limited the CWA's leverage: the law prohibits requiring union membership or dues as a condition of employment, which can erode a local union's financial base and organizing grip over time.

As of the NLRB's March 27 acknowledgment, Spring Hill branch staff negotiate with Wells Fargo directly. Whether Fenton's coworkers face any unfair-labor-practice claims arising from the process, or whether any worker attempts to re-file for representation, will determine what comes next.