Give them a dose of their own medicine.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Job threat betrayal

... the biggest slap in the face is that the workers who are facing the sack are being forced to train foreigners to take over their positions.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/ ... t-betrayal

I have an account with one of these banks, and another I don't use with a lesser known community bank. I will now be dumping my main account and begin using my alternate account.

So how do you/we punish these institutions for their disgraceful antics?

Simple. Don't hold an account with them. Don't borrow from them. Don't invest with them.
Don't buy their shares.

If the public wanted to, they could over time destroy these banks to the point of insolvency.

[mantra]

I was going to do the same thing when I first heard about Westpac's latest cut - but all the big banks are doing it. The only alternative is to change to a community bank or similar - but there is no government guarantee of their funds. The big 4 have got a lot of Australians over a barrel.

Every quarter their profits improve substantially from the previous quarter, yet they're not prepared to continue investing in Australian workers - even though these same Australian workers give them their profits. The telco's are the same.

[Mattus]

Naive question: Why are the big international banks like Deutsche Bank, BoA, Barclays, Citi not operating in Australia.

[freediver]

I have a citibank account.

I shop around for the cheapest banks. If that means hiring dirt poor foreigners who really need the money, then everyone is happy. Most often it doesn't. I have no idea why the big banks charge so much. Maybe the public is just stupid and they are taking advantage of that.

[Outlaw Yogi]

The only alternative is to change to a community bank or similar

Apparently so, maybe even credit unions or building societies.
I opened an account with a community bank several years ago, but still ran most of my money through the account with 1 of the big 4, that I've had since 18 years old.
(had an account with a building society since I was 16, but let it lapse).
So the next time I was given a cheque, I thought "I'll put it in my new account".
Went to deposit it at the counter/window and the cashier handed me a deposit slip informing me I had to fill it out first, like I had to do at other financial institutions 20 years ago. So I filled in the account No, BSB No, and it wanted some other No (forget what now), and thought "Bugger this $#!+". Walked out, walked upto the counter at my usual bank, handed the cashier my card and the cheque, and was deposited with no muck around.
Which is why my community bank account is virtually empty.

- but there is no government guarantee of their funds.

Yeh, but what's a govt guarantee really worth?. Probably not much more than a couple of peanut butter sandwiches.
Look what happened in Argentina when the IMF dumped on them. Govt guarantee meant nothing. The banks simply closed their doors and refused to let people have their money.
Millionaires became instant paupers because they couldn't access their funds. The people en mass banged on bank doors and windows with pots and pans day after day for ages.

Look what happened when the GFC hit and the US dollar crashed. US and Swiss banks refused to hand back physical gold people had stored in their vaults, and issued certificates no better than toilet paper.

The big 4 have got a lot of Australians over a barrel.

Only because the customers let themselves be blackmailed into accepting it.

Every quarter their profits improve substantially from the previous quarter, yet they're not prepared to continue investing in Australian workers - even though these same Australian workers give them their profits. The telco's are the same.

Spot on. So the simple answer is just reject these banks altogether. Don't give them your money.
And the employees of said banks should do the same. If I was put in their position, I'd refuse to help the bank replace me. I'd just resign and put my hand out for my redundancy and super immediately. If I had a mortgage to cover, I'd try to move it elsewhere, and if I couldn't, I'd just sell up and move out.

There's always an alternative. You just have to be willing to stand your ground.
These institutions need us more than we need them.

[Outlaw Yogi]

Naive question: Why are the big international banks like Deutsche Bank, BoA, Barclays, Citi not operating in Australia.

Can't say/don't know, but I'm not sure that they aren't.

Citi bank offered me a credit card years ago, and I'm pretty sure I saw a Citi bank office in Sydney somewhere. Forget where, was a long time ago. Although personally I wouldn't go near Citi bank. For one they're not interested in anything not in cities and from reputation are supposed to be even worse than our big 4.