Great SEIU Video On The Hartmarx Fight

The SEIU Illinois State Council (which sponsors this website) today released the following video on the events at the Hart Schaffner Marx factory in Des Plaines, IL over the last week.  Watch it (and get the backstory here)

In other news, workers at the Hickey Freeman plant in New York are following the lead of the Hart Schaffner Marx employees here in Illinois (both companies are subsidiaries of Hartmarx Inc., which is currently in bankruptcy).  They voted yesterday to stage a sit-in at their Rochester factory if Hartmarx's main creditor, Wells Fargo, ultimately moves to liquidate the company, rather than see it taken over by a bidder that will keep it operating. 

Additionally, the Democrat And Chronicle reports that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sent a letter to the bank urging them to give these preferred bidders more time:

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has been talking to Hartmarx and Wells Fargo for months, sent the bank a letter Tuesday urging it to delay any action while offers from at least two potential bidders are finalized.

"We're at a crucial time. There are bidders who would be willing, who are preparing their final deals to take over Hickey Freeman," Schumer said. The bidders, "as I understand, it would keep the concern going as it is now."

Check back tomorrow for more updates.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

Progress Illinois' intention is to foster community and to maintain a comfortable and constructive blogging environment. While we encourage and appreciates different points of view, we do not consider it our duty to give a voice to anybody with an opinion.

Discussion on this site is moderated. All comments submitted will be automatically held for review by the editors before posting. Your comment will not appear on the site until it has been approved.

We will not publish comments that we consider:

  • off-topic
  • long-winded or containing excessive text from another source
  • inflammatory
  • commercial promotion

Please leave a name or nickname when commenting, as it makes it easier for others to respond directly.