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Victory for the Sit-In Strikers |
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This just in from AP:
Bank of America says it will extend credit to a Chicago window and door manufacturer whose workers have occupied the factory for five days.
The bank says it’s willing to give the Republic Windows and Doors factory “a limited amount of additional loans” so it can resolves claims of employees who have staged a sit-in since Friday.
This is the same Bank of America that, after receiving $25 million in taxpayer bailout cash, cut off the company’s line of credit. The factory closed Friday and told workers they would not receive severance and accrued vacation pay.
Represented by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), which is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO or other union groups, the workers engaged in a peaceful sit-in, saying they would stay until they received what they were owed.
In the midst of our economic disaster, their action sparked widespread public support and media coverage, with 15 Chicago aldermen vowing to introduce an ordinance to require the city to stop doing any business with the Bank of America.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney threw the AFL-CIO union movement’s support behind the workers, saying:
These workers’ peaceful occupation of the shuttered Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago has put Washington and Wall Street on notice that working people have had enough. We applaud President-elect Barack Obama’s support for the workers’ demands to receive the vacation time and severance pay that they have earned. Our nation cannot afford to bail out banks and investment firms while leaving workers behind.
Workers like those at Republic and throughout the auto industry.
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THE SIT-IN IS NOT OVER! Negotiations are still going on, and the rally today at Bank of America is still on. Please stay with the Republic workers and check developments at http://www.ueunion.org.
Thank God that we finally have a President-elect who is on the side of working families. Congratulations to UE and these brave workers who are risking arrest and law suit. I’m happy that AFL-CIO President Sweeney is backing them. As dark as these economic days are, these are hopeful developments.
I think these people are hero’s for doing this I wish more would strike especially here in Florida If we would have done this in Florida the police would have came in and maced us or worse
I thought the BOA bailout was $15B. We’ll be on the street in Denton, TX, (101 S Locust) at 2:30 on Friday. We meet tonight to make more plans.
Gene Lantz, Organizer
North Texas JwJ
I am so proud of the Republic Windows and Doors factory Workers and the many Union Brothers & Sisters from other Industries that joined their struggle in Solidarity.
I am also glad to see that President-Elect Obama also supports their just cause. This fact bodes well for the future of the Labor Movement and our quest for Economic and Social Justice for all people.
Times are changing for the better but we as Workers must continue to be ever vigilant in support of all Working People throughout our Nation and the world.
It’s the 1930’s all over again; the Stock Market and financial institutions in chaos and brave workers staging sit ins.
Workers of the World Unite! Huge Multinational Corporate Oligarchies will control the World unless they are met with resistance from a strong united labor movement. There is nothing communist or socialist in these statements. It is natural and pragmatic to unite to oppose a powerful enemy.
I do not want to take anything away from the courageous workers at Republic, but in the final analysis they’ll all lose their jobs. It is a stretch, therefore, to call what they achieved a victory. They only got what the law required!
The workers stood tall. The were militant. They had the guts to demand a modicum of justice. That was all that was available to them…just a modicum. We’re all happy that they will receive a severance package, but just think about what the word “severance” really means. It means workers will be tossed out of their jobs. The workers are truly brave, but they were I do not want to take anything away from the courageous workers at Republic, but in the final analysis they’ll all lose their jobs. It is a stretch, therefore, to call what they achieved a victory. They only got what they had coming to them!
The workers stood tall. The were militant. They had the guts to demand a modicum of justice. That was all that was available to them…just a modicum. We’re all happy that they will receive a severance package, but just think about what the word “severance” really means. It means workers will be tossed out of their jobs. The workers are truly brave, but they were and are severely hampered by a system that allows wage slaves to suffer while millionaire corporate executives and millionaire shareholders walk away with their pockets overflowing with money.
Our one party system with its two wings, one called Republican and the other called Democrat, enacted laws that permit corporate America to screw working class families.
As far as I can see, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win responses were the stuff of which paper tigers are made…all words and no action.
The measured justice that UE workers at Republic will receive is a result of the militancy of the workers themselves.
Labor pie-cards and lawmakers had very little to do with the outcome. It was the workers who fought for their rights!
Sound familiar? Take a look at the current debate over the bridge loan to the Big Three. UAW members are being asked to make further concessions. That call is coming from both Republican and Democratic Senators. Where is labor? Where are Sweeney and Hoffa? (They are probably too busy having their Inaugural Ball tuxes fitted by their personal tailors.)
So, if you did “…not want to take anything away from the courageous workers at Republic” WHY did you?