Victory, it seems, for workers in Chicago

Photo Courtesy of AP

As many of you are no doubt aware, employees of Republic Window and Doors have been occupying their closed factory in Chicago since last Friday. As of today, they appear to have achieved a major victory. Before I go into the details of what exactly the workers have achieved, here's some background on the situation.

The workers, who are members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) local 1110, were told last Tuesday that the plant will be closing its doors in just three days. In doing so, Republic violated federal law, which requires that employers give their workers 60 days notice prior to mass layoffs. The workers are also entitled to vacation and severance pay, which they have not received. As a result, the workers are occupying the factory until they get the pay they deserve or until the plant resumes production.

At first glance, Republic Windows and Doors comes off looking like a major Scrooge in this situation. However, it's a bit more complicated. According to Republic, they were forced to abruptly halt production because their major financier, Bank of America, closed their main line of credit. This, despite the fact that Bank of America has received over $25 billion dollars in taxpayer loans from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) Federal bailout, whose express purpose was to jump start lending to the real economy. Upon learning of Bank of America's unconscionable greed, the state of Illinois (before it was revealed that Governor Blagojevich tried to extract bribes in exchange for Obama's now vacant Senate seat) and later, the city of Chicago, began to divest their holdings from the bank. President Elect Obama, in a rare act of transition progressivism, defended the workers and castigated Bank of America's callousness.

Fast forward until today and apparently in response to the actions of the state of Illinois, city of Chicago, and all the bad publicity they've gotten, Bank of America has agreed to lend Republic some money to make things right with their workers. The details of the agreement still need to be worked out and nothing will be approved without a majority vote of the workers occupying the factory. Ideally, BOA will extend Republic a line of credit large enough so they can resume production rather than just pay the workers their severance and back pay. According to Carl Rosen, President of the UE, that's what the workers are really looking for. Plus, it would make economic sense to do so. A major portion of Obama's stimulus package will be dedicated to retrofitting buildings in order to make them more energy efficient. And energy efficient doors and windows are exactly what the workers at Republic Windows and Doors make. According to Thomas Balanoff, president of SEIU Illinois Council and frankly, anyone with half a brain, it doesn't make any sense to close the factory in this context.

When I first heard about the factory occupation, it immediately called to mind memories of the Argentine recovered factory movement(dramatically portrayed by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein's film, The Take) as well as the 36-37 Flint Sit-Down Strike against GM. Personally, I think if Bank of America refuses to extend a large enough loan to resume production, the workers inside the factory should take control of it and just start running it themselves, as the workers did in Argentina. It would lose them a lot of their moderate supporters, but I think the Federal Government would be still be compelled to use the stimulus money to buy from them. Or more likely, why not just use some of the TARP money to lend directly to Republic Windows and Doors and allow them to start production again and cut the BOA middle man out of the process?

Regardless of the exact details of any eventual agreement between the union, BOA, and Republic, local 1110's factory occupation is truly cause for hope. FDR didn't sign the Wagner Act, require participants in the NIRA to allow unions to organize, create the Works Progress Administration, or pass any of his other progressive reforms just out of the goodness of his own heart. He did these things because public ferment in the form of strikes, unemployment demonstrations, actions against evictions, and other protests forced him to act. LBJ didn't sign the civil rights act because he was such a nice guy, either. The pressure generated by the civil rights movement forced him to do so. Such is the history of our country, of any country for that matter. As Frederick Douglas famously said, "Power concedes nothing without demand". As a result, I congratulate the workers at Republic for their fearless, patriotic actions. Congress may not have had the spine to stand up to the finance industry and force them to use the bailout money to make loans, like Gordon Brown did in Britain, but the workers at Republic were. Hopefully they will inspire other workers around the country facing similar straights to do the mobilize againstt layoffs or any other form of injustice. Actions like these, if they become generalized, have the power to force Barack Obama to live up to his campaign promises and perhaps, go beyond them.

Furthermore, I am hopeful that Obama will continue to make such statements in support of workers fighting for their rights. I agree very much with the folks at Open Left that Obama played a huge role in this just by rhetorically supporting their cause. During the 30s, popular protest forced FDR in a more progressive direction, but according to Melvyn Dubofsky who wrote the great book, The State and Labor in Modern America, the effect went both ways. Not only did the popular protests force FDR's hand, but FDR's legislation and his rhetoric was seen by many workers as a green light to start organizing. In discussions with fellow workers, union supporters often claimed that the President wants you to join the union. In their negotiations with their bosses, workers claimed the President ordered the company to recognize the union. Whether or not these claims were actually true (often they were not), FDR's words and actions emboldened an already angry and mobilized populace. Obama could fill the same role in the coming months.

All of this, of course, depends on whether people like you and me follow in the footsteps of the Republic workers and get out there and make our voices heard. So from my highly influential and not at all hypocritical position as a blogger currently living outside the United States, I say, get out and do something!