The over 3,000 employees of Hartmarx, Inc. -- including 1,000 here in Illinois -- got a new ally yesterday in their effort to keep creditor Wells Fargo from liquidating the 122-year-old company (you can catch up on the entire backstory here). Meeting with local political leaders in Des Plaines, Sen. Dick Durbin had this to say about the situation, via the Daily Herald:
"President Obama's suits," said Des Plaines Mayor Martin Moylan about what Durbin and the new mayors discussed. "We need federal money to keep that factory open, we're talking about 600 local jobs."
Durbin agreed. [...]
"We loaned money to Wells Fargo and they need to help out local businesses," said Durbin on Wednesday. "It's a two-way street."
As we write this, Hartmarx workers from the suitmaker's Des Plaines factory are boarding buses and heading to Milwaukee, where they will protest outside the Target Corporation Annual Meeting. Target’s Board of Directors includes Richard M. Kovacevich, chairman of Wells Fargo. The workers will continue to urge the bank to accept the pending bid from a British private equity firm to take over the bankrupt company. The bid was officially endorsed by the company's owners last Friday, and Wells Fargo will soon decide whether to allow it to proceed or pursue liquidation.
We'll have some pictures from the action later today or early tomorrow.
Full disclosure: Workers United is an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU Illinois State Council sponsors this website.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 10:28
I notice that Roland Burris hasn't chimed in on this debacle. He's probably too busy formulating his next excuse, uh I mean story.
Josh Kalven on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 10:32
In his brief tenure as U.S. Senator, Burris hasn't exactly endeared himself to the labor community. Shortly after taking office, he began waffling on the Employee Free Choice Act.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2009/02/organized-labor-mad...
A big labor event in February in Chicago featured a sign reading "Where is Sen. Roland Burris?"
http://www.progressillinois.com/2009/2/17/knuckling-up-on-efca
Post new comment
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:
Please leave a name or nickname when commenting, as it makes it easier for others to respond directly.