The story of Republic Window and Doors started quietly last week, when Bank of America informed the company, located on Chicago's Goose Island, that it had canceled their $5 million line of credit. Then came the rumble. Republic's executives, in turn, announced that the company would be shutting down and gave its 250-plus workers 72 hours to leave their jobs. In the days since, the story has built to a roar, with employees deciding on Friday to stage an ongoing sit-in in the factory. Local officials, members of Congress, and the national news media have all taken notice and you can be sure to hear more about the situation over the course of the next week.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez has so far been playing a central role in assisting the workers. He's orchestrating a meeting tomorrow between Bank of America, Republic executives, and representatives of the employees. I've also heard that certain state officials, along with some Chicago aldermen and Cook County commissioners, are planning to roll out separate initiatives tomorrow aimed at pressuring Bank of America to reconsider their decision. Prepare to hear a lot about how the bank just sold $9 billion worth of FDIC-insured debt, thanks to the Wall Street bailout package. In short, this financial institution -- whose top seven executives made a combined $87 million last year -- is refusing to extend credit to manufacturers like Republic while at the same time putting taxpayers on the hook for their own risky investments.
We'll keep you updated on any developments. In the meantime, here's some more backstory ...
At issue is the company's obligations to its workers under the WARN Act, as Chi-Town Daily News' Megan Cottrell explains:
Republic Windows and Doors announced Tuesday that it would close today because the company could not get continued financing from the Bank of America. Company officials also said they are unable to give workers the 60 days pay and unused vacation as required under the federal WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act.
Today, U.S. Rep Luis Gutierrez, D-4, pointed out that a state law complimenting the WARN ACT requires the company to give workers an additional 15 days pay, for a total of 75.
The WARN Act covers companies with 100 or more full-time employees.
By occupying the factory, as the workers have done since Friday, they're ensuring that Republic can't begin to cart off all its valuable machinery. ABC 7 reported that some workers saw the company beginning to remove equipment a couple weeks ago:
Laid off worker and father of three Armando Robles says he witnessed how, as early as two weeks ago, the company began moving equipment out in the middle of the night.
He says he's in the protest for the long haul.
"They owe me, and I need to feed my family. I will stay 'til the end," he said.
The timing of the company's announcement is also going to receive some scrutiny:
"I don't believe somebody woke up on Tuesday and simply decided to shut the doors," [Rep. Luis] Gutierrez said. [...]
Melvin Maclin, 54, who has worked at the plant for seven years, said employees had suspected the company was in dire financial straits for months but were continually reassured.
A report from the picket line:
UE Local 1110 members, along with community supporters, picketed and rallied in front of Bank of America’s main Chicago branch on Wednesday, December 3. They chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!” Local 1110 President Armando Robles told the news media, “Just weeks before Christmas we are told our factory will close in three days. Taxpayers gave Bank of America billions, and they turn around and close our company. We will fight for a bailout for workers.”
The New York Times has more:
The workers, many of whom were sitting on fold-up chairs on the factory floor Saturday afternoon, said they would not leave.
“They’re staying because the fact is that these workers feel they have nothing to lose at this point,” said Leah Fried, an organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110, who said groups of 30 were occupying the plant in shifts. “Telling them they have three days before they are out on the street, penniless, is outrageous.”
The Community Media Workshop provides some historical perspective:
The sit-down comes a little more than 72 years after the first sit-down strike by Bendix workers in South Bend, Indiana, and three weeks before the 72nd anniversary of the ephochal 44-day Flint sit-down strike, which forced General Motors to recognize the United Auto Workers.
Finally, the Nation's John Nichols takes a wide-angle view:
Just as Roosevelt needed mass movements and militancy as an excuse to talk Washington stalwarts into accepting radical shifts in the economic order, so Obama will need to be able to point to some turbulence at the grassroots.
And so he may have it. [...]
Barack Obama will not be the new FDR, and this coming period will not see a "new New Deal" unless labor is inspired to fight once more to keep workers on the job, plants operating and American manufacturing industries muscular enough to survive in the global market. Then, the proper demands can be made on an Obama administration to back up not just unions but their expanding membership.
If the right history of this time is written, it will be said that the new New Deal began in Chicago -- not just because Obama comes from the city but because workers there chose to stand up by sitting down.
Stay tuned ...
Comments
jag8452 (not verified) on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 14:23
Sounds like a just cause. Any way that someone far away, like me here in Louisiana, can show support for the efforts of these employees?
jag8452
WayneSMT (not verified) on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 15:40
In response to John Nichols:, What will the workers receive? What is the point of sitting in when there is no longer a purpose for the industry they were engaged in and that goes for the UAW as well. Even if the auto companies get "bailed out" no one will ever buy their products again so the point is moot.
There will be no new houses built. There is no need for a factory for windows hence there is no need for the workers. Our reason for existence is for growth and consumerism. If there is no need for growth the entire model of America is rendered moot. Even with Obama's purported plan for massive infrastructure rebuilding, if there is no reason to build, there will not be any building. FDR's New Deal still was predicated upon unlimited growth and abundant energy. The population must contract for there to be any future growth. The only way any jobs program will work is if the population contracts to the point that growth is then possible. Right now. Growth is no longer possible. We must contract. The only question remaining now is how the contraction is to accomplished. Those workers in Chicago can cling to the last vestiges of a life they once knew, it still does not change the presicent fact that the life that they knew is over and it will not return. Not in their lifetimes, not in their childrens or grandchildrens lifetime will the America they once knew return.. Actions like theirs will only hasten a system of control that does not benefit anyone except a few that will remain in power. A dawn of anarchy is upon us. There time would be better spent on getting themselves and their families out of the city. Cities and large population centers will become untenable here in less then 90 days.
I'm sorry that that truth is not positive. Sometimes the truth is negative and it is a very hard pill to swallow.
F0rk (not verified) on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 22:11
WayneSMT it appears you didn't even read the entire article before you commented. If you read this story and most of the coverage you would recognize that the main point of grievance is the denial of compensation for their accrued vacation hours plus expected severance pay. While a few have made some demands about keeping the factory open, that is outside the main scope of these people's goal. I'm sure you would be upset if someone broke into your house and stole money from you...why shouldn't these people be incensed about being robbed as well? Theft is theft, by gun or deceit.
I won't even go into the irony of Bank of America cutting Republic's line of credit after receiving TARP funds...TARP = Worst Idea EVER.
SanDiegoView (not verified) on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 05:35
The $15 billion of $25 billion at least that went to Bank of America (Republic's banker and line of commercial credit) as part of the $700 billion taxpayer suckers bailout of the financial institutions...Bank of America used that money to increase it stock position in the China Construction Bank to 19.8%, not aid/help/assist a company like Republic with American workers. Bushco sucker punched the American people financially and the Democrats did not have the courage to stop it, and still don't.
ProudOldLefty (not verified) on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 13:07
Something is definitely fishy here.
a) While Republic Windows was getting ready to shut down it's Illinois factory and lay off it's 300-some workers without severance or notice, some principals of Republic were buy FORMING another company, Echo Windows LLC, and BUYING a division of another company, manufacturing windows in Iowa. Who financed THAT transaction? Part of that money should definitely go to the laid-off workers, if the lay off is even legal. Either way, Republic is not looking like a good guy here.
b) BofA refusing to extend the line of credit to Republic may have been justified. BUT, part of the whole recovery process - and part of the reason BofA got $25 BILLION from the government, was to free up credit, to get money moving, so businesses can make payroll, buy supplies, invest, and stay in business. If BofA isn't easing up credit, then they should give the $25 Billion back...with interest!
Links to the sources can be found here:
www.community-organizer.com
Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 21:36
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".
Appletosh (not verified) on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 10:56
"Ted" Lechowicz during a 2002 Cook County Board meeting. (Tribune / Nancy Stone) Thaddeus S. "Ted" Lechowicz, who rode the Northwest Side's large Polish vote to seats in both houses of the state general assembly before serving a 12-year stretch on the Cook County Commission, died of heart failure on today at his Cragin home, said his daughter Laura Lechowicz Felicione. Mr. Lechowicz, 70, was also a longtime Democratic committeeman in the 30th Ward, where he got his start in politics in the 1960s as a precinct captain. "He was always someone who was never afraid to express an opinion and was a continuous fighter for what he saw as his constituents' needs," said Commissioner Larry Suffredin, (D-Evanston) a lawyer and lobbyist who knew Lechowicz from his days in Springfield. "He certainly was a voice for the ethnic Chicago communities." Mr. Lechowicz was elected to the state House in 1969, moving up to assistant majority leader, and then in 1983 won a seat in the state Senate. In 1990, he made an unsuccessful bid for Cook County board president, losing to Democrat Richard Phelan. But he received enough votes to become a commissioner, for a couple of years holding that post along with his Senate seat. He remained on the board until losing a re election bid to Forrest Claypool in 2002. County Board President Todd Stroger said in a statement that Mr.
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