Janitor facing foreclosure cleans up after CEO whose bank bought her home

Huffington Post:

At first, Minneapolis janitor Rosalina Gomez said she didn't realize she was cleaning up after the CEO of the bank that bought her foreclosed home in a September sheriff's sale.

"At the beginning I didn't know he was the guy," said Gomez through an interpreter in an interview with HuffPost. "I didn't know the relationship between my house and him. I saw him one time but never talked to him."

The guy is Richard Davis, CEO of Minneapolis-based US Bank, the nation's sixth-largest bank and recipient of $6.6 billion in TARP bailout funds. On Feb. 28, Davis was set to receive an
"Executive of the Year" award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal at a banquet -- 11 days before Gomez and her family had to comply with an eviction order.

The Service Employees International Union, of which Gomez is a member, could not resist the opportunity to draw attention to the soon-to-be-evicted woman cleaning up after one of the bankers taking her home away (US Bank is the trustee; Chase is the mortgage servicer). The SEIU began agitating for Gomez, an effort which dovetailed with a union campaign on behalf of area janitors fighting for a better contract.

"After they found out I was involved in the union activity, they assigned two security guards to follow me when I was cleaning," she said, adding that the guards helped her clean.
Gomez earns $26,000 a year ($12.97 an hour) working for a janitorial services company cleaning up after Davis. He earns more than $2 million a year.

The SEIU planned to have Gomez, 48, deliver a personal letter to Davis as he received his CEO of the Year award last Friday. "I was going to personally give this letter to Richard Davis," she said. But before they could do the stunt, US Bank called for a negotiation between Gomez, union officials and Chase.

The meeting resulted in a deal: The eviction was postponed for 60 days, and Chase will consider making an offer.

"We spoke to the customer on Friday and asked them for information so we could consider a possible modification," wrote a Chase spokesman in an email.

"If the meeting that was facilitated by the two banks and the unions means this lady has an opportunity to stay in her house, that meeting was well worth it," said a US Bank spokesman.