Check out the Associated Press video below for more information.
The workers have been receiving a lot of support. Their union brothers and sisters from AFSCME, Teamsters and other unions have spoken out in their defense. UE members in North Carolina are planning a solidarity protest in front of Bank of America in Charlotte on Monday. Local faith leaders held a vigil at the factory on Saturday. Representative Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Chicago, has
also been standing with the union throughout their fight. Rep. Jan Schakowsky also expressed her support today and Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered food and encouragement to the workers today. President-elect Barack Obama also expressed his support for the workers today.
The Republic Window workers' action is very important because it highlights how the massive financial bailout -- and economic policy in general -- has not helped working families. It is exciting to see workers taking direct action to demand what is theirs and they deserve our support. Many international labor activists have also been very inspired by the recovered factory movement in Latin America. In countries across Latin America, especially Argentina, workers whose plants shut down during financial crises in those countries took over the factories, formed cooperatives and restarted production. The Chicago workers' militant action brings to mind many similar cases of workers in Argentina. For more information about this exciting movement, I recommend checking out the book Sin Patron: Stories from Argentina's Worker-Run Factories by the Lavaca Collective or the documentary The Take.
There are a number of things you can do to show your solidarity with Republic Windows workers in Chicago:
- Donate to support the workers' strike fund: You can contribute online here or send checks to UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, UE Western Region, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607
- Send an e-mail to Bank of America: Contact Bank of America through Jobs With Justice's website and tell them to ensure that Republic Windows workers get their benefits. Jobs With Justice is also sponsoring a People's Bailout Week of Action from December 7-13 -- more information and details on local action across the country are available here.
- Send an e-mail to UE Local 1110 expressing your solidarity: Your support helps encourage these courageous workers.
- Sign this petition: Sign this petition showing your support for the workers.
- Join the Facebook group
- Contact Republic Windows and Doors here
To find out the latest updates on this action, keep checking the UE website and Chicago Indymedia. A meeting between the workers and the company is scheduled for Monday.
Comments
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
WOW what losers, move on and find a new job already. Many other people are getting laid off but you don't see them crying about it! Do union members think they are better than everyone else? cry babies!
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
I don't know why ignorant people must blame unions but they do. Workers have taken a beating for some years now with wages stagnating and not able to meet the costs of all other companies raising prices for profit. This is a moral issue and a contractual issue not to mention laws on the books to stop this sort of screwing of workers. Workers must have more time to take care of families when they are losing a job and they should get serverance pay, wages, and earned vacation. People don't get it. You earned this money already and it is yours. As far as the rip off bank of america, they need to lose their customers as a protest. This should be a union matter and all unions in this country should pull all their monies out of bank of america. They were bailed out with our money so where is it and what are they using it for? I have to admit, I belonged to the worse Union in the country but that doesn't change my mind on all unions. They are needed but they all must learn to back each other. Divided we fall so it must be a large movement across the country. This is just the beginning and needs to stop now and show the banks we are serious about our jobs. I am moving my account to a small saving and loan company that seem to really care about it's customers.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
Good for these workers! I am happy to see workers standing up in support of each other and in the face of greedy corporations. I would also encourage everyone to contact their Members of Congress and ask them to put pressure on Bank of America since it's OUR tax-payer money that they are supposed to be lending to companies.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
Wow- the president-elect endorses the trespassing on private property.... Guess if I get laid off and don't feel its fair I can go to the owners house and break in. Then Jesse can bring me a turkey to eat and it will all be blessed by Obama. If the company owes them money, then sue for it and let the court system settle it. All trespassers should be arrested along with Jackson.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
To Raymond and Steve,
You are forgetting that this company's actions are ILLEGAL. As Sandy said, these workers are fighting for money they earned and that is legally required to be paid to them. Why should they just give up the money they worked so hard for? Would you just give in like that? These people have nothing left and deserve their benefits -- they have families to take care of. Waiting for a lawsuit would take too long (remember that the company violated the law in only giving workers 3 day notice, so this is a shock to the workers) and it would also be difficult to take on the company's lawyers.
Additionally, Sandy and Beth are right to note that the workers are not getting their pay because Bank of America is not allowing it. This is a bank that just accepted billions of our tax dollars for the exact purpose of offering credit to prevent disasters like what is happening with Republic Windows. This is our tax dollars at work and that's not how I want my money being spent.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
Let's not forget, what the company is doing is STEALING pay that the worker's rightfully earned. Why should we just have to take it?
In terms of using the courts for remedy in this situation, the reason we have labor laws on the books that support workers and allow them to sue for their back pay is because a hundred years ago, union wokers, just like these, sat in at their factories in Detroit, Chicago and around the country. It is because of workers like these and actions like these that American workers have so many of the rights they have at work.
I just made my donation to the UE and hope that others will do the same.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
I was glad to hear Obama voice his support of these workers. I hope they get every bit of what they're owed and I hope the owners of this company get properly disciplined or fined. When I first heard this story I could not understand that they thought they could even get away with this - but the fact is - they would have gotten away with it if these workers hadn't stood up. Kudos to all of them.
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
This is exactly what needs to be done by workers in every town and city, in every state throughout the country! Wouldn't it be great to look back and remember that the movement started with this small spark in Chicago that ignited throughout the land and changed the landscape of how labor is viewed in America? Let's take Obama at his word and do this... ourselves!!!
The time is now- before they get away with everything, and leave everyone save themselves on the street!
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
I cannot understand Republic ducking its responsibility to pay employees. I cannot understand how they miscalculated their financial condition leaving them unable to make good on their most fundamental obligations, that being payroll. I cannot understand how anyone would expect a bank to continue lending to an unprofitable business. And finally, I cannot understand how the TARP money, which is the taxpayers' money, is becoming "easy money". It shouldn't be loaned without sound credit analyses. It's my money and I want it loaned to a well run company and one that can reasonably be expected to pay it back!
If we are to have Bank of America lend to unprofitable businesses, then where will it stop? And when Bank of America makes enough bad loans, it too will declare bankruptcy and who will we blame?
It's Republic who is has breached its obligations to employees. Its Republic who has run afoul of sound accounting practices and its Republic who cannot take responsibility for its own failure. Shame on this company for shirking its responsibilities and then blaming others. Recall the commandment, "Thou shalt not bear false witness".
re: Chicago Workers Take Over Their Factory
Well, I don't know that Republic was that poorly run. It's just that Bank of America decided to cut its costs---at a time when it had just been given tons of money for precisely the purpose of not shrinking its credit to manufacturers and others.
Any penny spent on someone making energy efficient doors and windows goes a lot further in terms of the economy than a penny spent on an executive pay check. Bank of America should be ashamed.
Hopefully, this is a sign of how the Obama administration will approach labor issues and the economy once it actually has power: with smart advisers and clever charts but, more importantly, with strong principles and some daring.