MINNEAPOLIS - While Chairman, President, and CEO of U.S. Bancorp Richard
Davis is being honored tomorrow as the Minneapolis - Saint Paul Business
Journal's Executive of the Year, Rosalina Gavilan Gomez, the janitor who
cleans his office at the U.S. Bancorp Building in downtown Minneapolis,
is fighting for her home - purchased in foreclosure by U.S. Bank.
"It's outrageous to me that after taking billions of our tax dollars in
bailout money, the big banks are still foreclosing on people's homes
instead of keeping mortgages affordable and keeping their customers,"
said Rosalina Gavilan Gomez, a janitor at US Bancorp assigned to clean
Richard Davis' office in Minneapolis.
Rosalina and her husband purchased their home in 2004 for $200,000.
Rosalina works 40 hours a week at $12.97 an hour. Her annual salary of
$26,000 just wasn't enough to keep up with her Adjustable Rate Mortgage
after refinancing. She and her husband were forced to file for Chapter 7
bankruptcy. Soon after they lost the right to keep their house. U.S.
Bank purchased the house for $35,000 on September 11, 2009. A sheriff
delivered a letter by a judge stating that they have to move by March
11th.
Since the start of the housing crisis, more than 88,000 Minnesota
families have lost their homes to foreclosure while Fortune 500
companies like US Bancorp and Wells Fargo continue to rake in billions
in net profits during the recession.
U.S. Bancorp, the parent company of U.S. Bank, the nation's
sixth-largest bank, received $6.6 billion from taxpayer money during
last year's federal bailout of the banks. Richard Davis made $6.7
million in 2008.
Full-time janitors in the Twin Cities make as little as $20,200 a year.
Many face thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical costs due to
poor coverage, or do not go to the doctor out of fear of incurring big
bills.
Janitors at ABM and Harvard, who clean commercial office buildings and
corporate headquarters across the Twin Cities region, have voted to
authorize a strike over unfair labor practices and could walk off the
job at any time. They have been bargaining for months with their
employers, and they have been working without a contract since January
8.