SEIU prez satisfied with BofA CEO's departure

The president of one of the country's largest unions is hardly sparing a tear for embattled Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis, who announced on Wednesday he would resign his post at the end of the year.

Rather, Andy Stern, the chief of Service Employees International Union, expressed satisfaction with the news in his most recent tweet:

Ken Lewis leaving Bank of America after SEIU coalition led effort to highlight Bank's poor credit card, financial management, and CEO pay

Stern and Lewis have long been at odds. Their relationship grew most tenuous earlier this year, after SEIU leaders learned that Bank of America was spearheading a campaign to defeat the Employee Free Choice Act, one of SEIU's top policy priorities.

The news, combined with the reports that Lewis had offered large bonuses to newly acquired Merrill Lynch employees, soon prompted the union to become the first to demand the embattled CEO's ouster.

“Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis just doesn’t get it," SEIU wrote in an e-mail to supporters at the time. "The era of greed and irresponsibility is over ... Enough is enough. Bank of America must fire CEO Ken Lewis.”

Lewis, however, tacitly dismissed on Wednesday any suggestion that he had been forced out of his job.

"The Merrill Lynch and Countrywide integrations are on track and returning value already," Lewis said in a statement. "Our board of directors and our senior management include more talent, and more diversity of talent, than at any time in this company's history. We are in position to begin to repay the federal government's TARP investments. For these reasons, I decided now is the time to begin to transition to the next generation of leadership at Bank of America."

It is still unclear who will replace Lewis as CEO next year.