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Worker Sit-In Highlights the Shift in the Political Winds |
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What a difference an election makes. Here’s what President-elect Barack Obama has to say about the 250 workers in Chicago who have staged a peaceful sit-in at the factory they worked at after it closed without paying them their salaries. From Bloomberg:
“I think they’re absolutely right,” Obama said today in response to a question at a Chicago news conference. “And understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”
Obama said the workers are justified in demanding their benefits and pay.
Wow. It’s going to take awhile to get used to this sort of response, after eight years of constant attacks on America’s workers by a hostile anti-worker administration.
The workers at the plant, Republic Windows & Doors, are represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), an independent and historically in-your-face union. The company closed its doors Dec. 5 after Bank of America canceled its line of credit. (Let’s see, financial firms were the ones who got our taxpayer bailout money so they could release credit to get the nation moving again….)
The UE announced today that 15 Chicago aldermen said they will introduce an ordinance to require the city to stop doing any business with the Bank of America.
Major media are giving the sit-in tremendous attention, and now, as a result of the hard work of union members to elect a working family-friendly president who has the bully pulpit to set a new, progressive tone, workers at a shuttered factory have a chance to get what they are owed.
What a difference an election makes.
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This is a good example of the changes in store for businesses and workers in the new economy. The financial institutions are in the process of consolidating their power to have a tighter control of currency and credit. In the future the financial powers will control corporations thus workers and everyone will pay the price of the road we have started down.
The Alderman have the right idea I just hope there is a local Chicago bank to deal with.
What is the significance of this event to working people, especially unorganized and defenseless, easily exploited and destroyed? Here is a socialist perspective:
A great step forward
9 December 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/12/08/worker-sit-in-highlights-the-shift-in-the-political-winds/#comments
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“For the first time since the onset of the economic crisis, a section of the working class is taking an independent stand and resisting the corporate assault on jobs and living standards, which is claiming thousands of new victims each day.
These workers are displaying enormous courage. They refused to be thrown out of the factory when management moved to shut down the plant last Friday, after giving the workers just three days notice. They have insisted they will not leave the plant until management pays the severance and vacation pay owed to each worker.
This action has a powerful objective meaning. The same conditions that have driven these workers into struggle are affecting millions throughout the US and around the world. Such struggles are going to erupt more and more frequently as the economic crisis compels workers to act collectively to assert their own class interests.”
CORRECTION: The URL Link in my above post is wrong. Here is the correct
Link to the article quoted: “A great step forward” http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/pers-d09.shtml
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ADDITIONAL ARTICLES ON THE CHICAGO WORKER SIT-IN WITH PHOTOGRAPHS, VIDEOS, INTERVIEWS AND UPDATED INFORMATION.
(December 10th WSWS. home page http:/www.wsws.org
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Workers occupy Chicago factory for fifth day
By Tom Eley
10 December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/chic-d10.shtml
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Republic Windows and Door workers speak on their struggle
By Tom Eley
10 December 2008 (interviews with photos)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/ints-d10.shtml
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Video: WSWS report on Chicago factory occupation
10 December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/chiv-d10.shtml
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By the way, WSWS is a good daily source of international news of struggles
by working people worldwide. Many of the dire conditions now being imposed here have been common for the last year or so In France, Germany, England, etc.
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