Inez Killingsworth
NPA Co-Chairperson

You know the feeling. It’s a year into a campaign. Your organiza- tion has been unstoppable. Doors were knocked. Planning meetings were held. One public meeting took place after another. You’ve gone to their front door and invaded their offices. You’ve worked with a strong leadership team to constantly go after the target. You’ve engaged the press. You’ve created an awareness and have generated anger about this issue so that it is talk of the town.
And finally the target decides to come to the table. They are ready to negotiate. You’ve beaten them down. They say they want you to become a partner instead of an enemy. When they are face to face, they promise the world with a smile and a handshake. And they say, “Oh, we don’t have to sign an agreement now. We’re partners and we promise to work with you.”

But don’t believe the devil in disguise.

A week goes by. Two months slowly tick away. And those commitments don’t seem to be holding up.

The question then becomes how to force them to follow through on their commitments.
National People’s Action was recently in a similar situation. Greg Harmer, vice-president and general counsel for Fairbanks Capital Corp., met with two groups of NPA leadership teams in June and July. Community groups across the country had targeted the corporation for its abusive practices – such as collecting monthly mortgage payments from borrowers and then claiming never having received them. Fairbanks then charges a variety of fees from late fees to “drive-by” fees, where loan officers will come to a borrower’s door, ring the doorbell, leave and then charge hundreds of dollars for a home visit.

Borrowers get so far behind in payments and are unable to pay these fraudulent fees that they soon face foreclosure and losing their homes.

Harmer, with his fancy title and the power of his corporation backing him, thought he could bamboozle us. At the July meeting, he smoothly promised to come to several NPA cities and talk about changing Fairbanks’ practices. He promised and even shook our hands.
But within weeks of his promise, he was backing out and claiming he couldn’t make it and that he never made such a promise. I realized after hearing a series of his excuses that he believed his power came from small group meetings, where he felt in control and where the whole world didn’t know about his commitments. He was scared of public meetings because he would have to make commitments in front of hundreds of people, including the media and local and state officials.

After talking to the NPA contact, Harmer decided he wanted to take his excuses straight to me – as if I would be more understanding. I said I didn’t want to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen to the organizers. He said he would call the Eastside Organizing Project’s (ESOP) offices at 6 p.m. That same night, ESOP members were holding a planning meeting around Fairbanks practices. While Harmer didn’t bother to call until 8:30 p.m. – he still requested to talk to me. I refused.

He argued and pleaded with the organizer to get me on the phone. Suddenly all of the leaders in the room erupted with the chant, “We want Harmer! We want Harmer!” Even from over a telephone line and halfway across the country, he heard all of the leaders shouting his name. Harmer became nervous. And then he heard from the organizer that groups were meeting in Syracuse, NY and Cincinnati, OH that same night on Fairbanks’ predatory tactics. He became even more nervous as he saw us gearing up for action.

Two days before our public meeting, Harmer called and said that another Fairbanks representative was going to come – someone even higher on the corporate food chain then himself.

At the meeting the Fairbanks representative promised to sign an agreement with NPA to reform its practices. And while we’re happy about that, we’re not going to take it for granted until we see their name on the bottom line.

The lesson to be learned, is that even though they promise – it’s just hot air. Only when the ink is dry, do you know that you’ve won the battle.