Jared Story, left, and Debbie McKinney hold signs protesting against UBS Bank during gathering Tuesday sponsored by Chattanooga Organized for Action.Cars flowed up and down M.L. King Boulevard during lunch-hour traffic as Jared Story and nearly a dozen Chattanooga Organized for Action and Occupy Chattanooga members chanted: “UBS, step off it. Put people over profit.”
Standing near UBS’ local office on Tuesday, the group was among protesters across the Appalachian Mountain region posted outside UBS financial centers. Johnson City, Kingsport, Oak Ridge and Cookeville, Tenn., also had scheduled demonstrations, according to the Hands Off Appalachia Facebook page.
Protesters said their goal is to persuade UBS bank, which is based in Zurich and Basel, Switzerland, to stop funding mountaintop removal for coal mining.
“We’re here because UBS firm provides financing to mountaintop removal coal mining, which is one of the most destructive forms of coal mining. It literally blasts the tops off mountains,” Story said.
The debris from the blasting gets into mountain streams and contaminates the water supply, he said.