Early this morning RAN sent out an email asking members to take action online. By 1pm this afternoon, RAN activists had called thousands of JP Morgan Chase employees in New York City telling them about the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, and asking them to help end it by stopping the financing of mountaintop removal coal mining companies.
JP Morgan Chase is the biggest bank funding mountaintop removal coal mining, an incredibly destructive practice which literally involves blowing the tops off of mountains to get at the coal underneath. Mountain top removal coal mining devastates communities and stands in the way of America’s clean energy future.
We know that the majority of people who received calls this morning aren’t decision makers for JP Morgan Chase on this issue, but if they are receiving calls about this at work, we hope that they will communicate up the chain of command and tell their supervisors that JP Morgan Chase must stop investing in mountaintop removal immediately. We thought that it is important that employees that work for JP Morgan Chase know what kind of investments the bank is making – and after today we are pretty sure that they do!
Here are some of the report-backs from activists who took action this morning:
“I called and talked to a worker who didn’t even know what mountain top removal was, and was interested to learn about it and sorry to hear how it affected the community. She gave me the phone # of media relations…”
— Margie
“A Chase banker asked me if it was an environmental issue. i said, no, I’ve visited Appalachian communities and I can assure you this is a human rights issue.”
— Cesar
“I did call Chase and did talk with a nameless woman who said that they invest according to what their investors want them to invest in. I said I understood, but I wanted my voice heard as a citizen that the investors could invest in clean energy”
— Laura
“I called and got hung up on.”
— Giles
If you took action this morning and called a JP Morgan Chase employee, let us know how it went – good or bad! If you haven’t taken action and would like to participate, follow this link.
If you talk to someone at JPMC, regardless of whether you have a positive interaction or one that leaves you feeling frustrated, we thank you for your effort and assure you that all of the calls this morning are definitely having an impact within JPMC. We will update you on any direct or indirect effects of this action and thank you for taking the time our of your day to challenge one of the world’s biggest banks on the issue of mountaintop removal.
-Annie