4 - Wednesday, iii I WROTE a column a while ago, complaining about the horrendous line-ups at the Royal Bank, intended, it seemed to me, to humiliate ‘and (more to the point, psychologically) IN- TIMIDATE depositors. Not surprisingly, the Royal didn’t blink. Any outfit that can af- ‘ford to powder the win- dows of its Toronto head office with gold doesn't “need to pay attention to nitpickers on the edge of civilization. Banking in Canada, as you may know, is overwhelmingly central- ‘ized, compared to any other democratic in- dustrialized nation. Profits? It is to gag. The question, of course, is: -how come the rest of us aren't doing quite so spec- tacularly? And almost never do, . There used to be the Big Five chartered banks in Canada, controlling more than 90% per cent of the banking business. Two of the next-biggest banks merged this summer, and ‘two collapsed, so now there are the Big Six, plus two —‘one of them being the gutsy “‘little’?’ Bank of B.C. My criticism of the ‘Royal, Canada’s biggest . bank, is that the relatively ‘unassailable power it en- joys as top member of the ‘extremely elite club of cen- tral bankers has made ‘it ~ arrogant. Unlike the American banks, where there is > usually: only one branch th... i il ’ December 18, 1985 - North Shore News “AN Bob Hunter e strictly personal ® per bank (this doesn't make them nice, it just makes them easier to get at), Canada’s gaggle of behemoth banking institu- tions form a_near-cartel that sucks mightily, well ahead of its depositors, at the trough of fiscal plenty around the foot of the CN Tower. I HATE line-ups! We have a right to be treated like customers, not peons. This rough critique, while ignored by the bank itself, was answered from an unexpected quarter. Arlyene Moberg, a member until recently (she has been transferred) of the Lynn Valley Royal Bank Branch Union of Bank Employees, Local 2100, one of the two unionized branches of the Royal anywhere west of Ontario, wrote to say that her own reaction to my comments was ‘“‘HUR- RAY!” . She stated flatly: It’s about time there was some publicity regarding how poorly the big banking corporations treat their lowly customers. Of course if a customer complained to the management about the long line-ups, the prompt reply is, ‘Get a banking machine card’. “We staff must, as a HRISTMAS~MAKE IT UNFORGETTABLE! Here's a “can't miss” gift that will express your feelings as well as your ingenuity. They're earring jackets, in your choice of 14K or ISK gold, designed to really show-off her diamond or pearl stud earrings, Christmas prices start at $200 with a wide selection of designs. We also have exceptional Christmas savings on our full size range of diamond and pearl stud earrings. SWEDISH JEVVELER Park Royal South Mall, Upper Level Telephone: 922-2235 Pacific Centre Lower Level Telephone: 682-6711 - part of our job mandate, push these banking cards at our customers. In the long tun, we are doing ourselves out of jobs. The Union of Bank Employees has had a jong, hard battle trying to convince our co-workers that this is exactly what the banks are doing, and that we have to organize together to fight for our jobs."* She adds: ‘‘The response to your article from many of my non-unionized co- workers was that they felt your column a direct criti- cism of their own perfor- mance, when, in fact, they do the very best they can with the pressures and stress of being short-staff- ed. The staff members we have now cannot keep up . with the line-ups, it’s true! But the reason the banks keep staff numbers so low is to promote Teller machines! “1 would like to request, Mr. Hunter, that you do a follow-up article clarifying the fact that the fault lies with the banking corpora- tions themselves, and that the tellers and clerical staff in the banks like the line- ups and heavy volumes no more than the . customer. But the banks won’t stop until the staff and custom- ers make it clear they will stand for it no longer.”’ Consider the follow-up . article done, m’am. I'd like to hear what the Royal has to say about this. Nothing, I bet. oy Soccer team underexposed From Page 1 Without the team’s home park or the use of another enclosed stadium, Johnstone said operating a semi- professional team was just not viable. His offer to PRSL execu- tive that the Colts arrange for a series of exhibition games against the other five PRSL teams until repair to the team’s home stadium was completed at the end of 1986 ‘was deemed unaccep- table by the league. Though the standard of play in the PRSL was ex- cellent, according to Johnstone, he said the league had failed to get that message across to the media and the public. All PRSL teams had subsequently suf- fered the effects of underex- posure, he added. Johnstone also pointed to league executive as a factor in his club’s failure. NO HELP The PRSL, he said, had done nothing to help his team, ‘‘but I guess when you . have.. league . management with no money. invested in that league, you’re.going to have problems.”’ The six original PRSL teams each paid a $5,000 franchise fee to join the league. and are liable for another $4,100 operating costs for 1985. 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