WASHINGTON – Hundreds of labor union members were preparing to demonstrate today in front of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Battery Park to protest Wall Street support of President Bush’s plan to create individual Social Security investment accounts.

The demonstration is part of a national day of protests aimed at pressuring American financial institutions to renounce the president’s plan.

Already successful in muscling two financial firms to pull out of coalitions that support the reform, the AFL-CIO and member unions planned to target offices of Wachovia Corporation and Charles Schwab nationwide, including in Long Island, White Plains, and Albany, organizers said. They also planned to protest at the offices of an insurer, MetLife, in Utica.

The Battery Park protest is organized by the New York City Central Labor Council.

“For individual working men and women, the president’s proposal is a dangerous idea, and we want everyone else to come on record as to why they would support the proposal,” a spokesman for the New York State AFL-CIO, Mario Cilento, said.

The labor campaign, which includes email and letter-writing drives, has been successful in pressuring two financial firms to drop out of a lobbying coalition that supports the accounts proposal.

Waddell & Reed Financial Inc. and Edwards Jones & Company pulled out of the pro-account group, the Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, after pressure from the unions.

The labor groups are targeting Charles Schwab through demonstrations, as well as an on-line campaign aimed at the firm’s clients. The Charles Schwab Corporation provides securities brokerage and wealth management to more than 7 million client accounts, with more than $1 trillion in assets.

Critics of the unions’ strategy have accused them of using “bullying tactics” and have urged Charles Schwab to stand firm.

The company had no plan to withdraw from the pro-account Alliance for Worker Retirement Security, said the vice president for corporate public relations, Alison Wertheim.

“At this point, we have no plans to pull out. We are trying to stand by what we are saying: we are trying to learn more and we are not taking any sides right now,” she said.

The unions’ protests are “misplaced” because the firm has also paid to join “pro-Social Security” groups and has “not taken a side” on the issue, said Ms. Wertheim.

“We are not a proponent of privatization. We are a proponent of education, debate, and finding out the information that will help us all find the best solution to Social Security reform,” she said.

The brokerage firm has given more money to the New Democratic Network than to the AWRS, she said, though she declined to disclose either sum.

Led by Simon Rosenberg, a former political strategist to President Clinton, the New Democratic Network states on its Web site that it favors a “progressive” economic agenda and rejects “any borrowing to fund a transition to private Social Security accounts,” or “any Social Security ‘reform’ plan that will increase our debt.”

The unions, however, insist that Charles Schwab is pushing for accounts.

“They claim they are neutral, but we don’t think they are neutral if they are still part of AWRS and other groups promoting privatization,” said a spokeswoman for the national AFL-CIO, Suzanne Ffolkes.

The president’s plan, which would al low workers to divert some of their Social Security taxes into personal accounts that would be invested in stocks and bonds, is a “risky proposition,” Ms. Ffolkes said.

Although unions also invest in the stock market through pension funds, there is “no comparison between union pension funds and private accounts,” she said, because union pension funds enjoy government guarantees through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, which ensures pension benefits through premiums collected from employers.

“We think with private accounts there is more risk involved,” she said.

The unions are targeting the financial firms in part because the labor groups claim the firms stand to profit from Mr. Bush’s Social Security proposal.

Ms. Ffolkes claimed that financial firms such as Charles Schwab collectively stood to make up to a trillion dollars in fees from the president’s plan. The Securities Industry Association, a trade group, has estimated revenues could be much smaller – $39 billion over 75 years, and it has stressed that the management of many small accounts invested in a handful of low risk, low-fee funds is not a lucrative proposition.

Ms. Wertheim said it would be “many, many, many years” before Charles Schwab saw a financial benefit.

The labor union campaign was not the only one taking aim in the Social Security debate this week.

The free-market advocacy group, the Club for Growth, ran ads attacking Senator Graham, a Republican of South Carolina and early proponent of private accounts, for suggesting that the government may need to collect more payroll tax as part of reform.

“Hey Lindsey: You can’t help someone save for retirement by raising their taxes,” the ads said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush continued a 60-day nationwide tour promoting the accounts idea yesterday in Iowa.

In an interview with a Cedar Rapids radio station, Mr. Bush said lawmakers who steer clear of the debate will suffer at the polls.

“I think there’s a political price for not getting involved in the process,” Mr. Bush told WHO Newsradio station. “I think there’s a political price for saying, ‘It’s not a problem, I’m going to stay away from the table.'”