Today’s Good News: Workers Occupy Factory, Win Demands
“We haven’t seen this since the 30’s,” said one observer. Ah, but now, you can expect to see a lot more of it, as laid-off workers at Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors occupied their shut-down factory, tapped into simmering anger about the bailout of the banks, and won the severance they were owed.
200 of 240 workers occupied the factory for six days. First they were ignored (they had been given 3 days’ notice of the plant’s shutdown, in violation of state law), then they were offered some $400,000, then in the end, they made an agreement to settle for about $1.75 million, about $7,000 per worker plus two months of health care paid.
The AP reported that Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, commented, “I’d be the first to say to companies that what you saw with workers at Republic will be repeated over and over across the country…We haven’t seen this since the ’30s.”
Asked for the key to their success, worker Ricardo Caceres said, “You’ve got to stick together.”
The company’s main creditor, Bank of America, was criticized for cutting off funds to the plant after it exhausted its credit line, even though, of course, B of A scooped up $25 billion in the bank bailout, money which was supposed to be used to extend credit.
We can’t forget that what these guys still don’t have is jobs. But hey, somebody should hire them as organizers.
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