12/21/08 - 1 pm - Eyewitness Report from the Chicago Factory Occupation

Eyewitness Report from the Chicago Factory Occupation at Republic Windows and Doors

Flyer PDF available here:
http://fightbacknews.org/flyers/2008/Dec21EyewitnessChicagoFactoryOccupa...

Sunday, December 21
1:00 pm
Mayday Books
(301 Cedar Ave S, Minneapolis)

Local activist Kim Defranco went to Chicago during the recent workers' factory occupation at Republic Windows and Doors. She spent time at the plant with the workers and took photos documenting their historic struggle. Come hear about what she saw and experienced in this important victory that shows the way forward for the labor movement and the struggle against the effects of the economic crisis.

Speakers:

Kim Defranco – Welfare Rights Committee, Fight Back! writer and photographer
Mick Kelly – Fight Back! News editor, Freedom Road Socialist Organization

From December 5th to 10th, 260 workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago took over their factory, leading one of the first factory occupations in the U.S. in decades. The workers succeeded in winning all their demands.

The mostly Latino workers, members of United Electrical union Local 1110, were going to be laid off – the owners only gave them three days notice that they were closing the factory. By law the workers were supposed to get 75 days notice or pay for those days, as well as health insurance and earned vacation pay. Instead of accepting getting shafted and going to the unemployment lines with their heads down and pockets empty, the workers fought back. They not only targeted their employer, but also Bank of America, a recipient of billions of dollars of the Wall Street bailout, who refused to loan money to the company to pay the workers. The workers raised the slogan "they get bailed out, we get sold out."

After six days of occupying their factory, the workers won. The Bank of America and Chase agreed to a $1.75 million loan. The workers will receive the eight weeks of pay due to them by the WARN Act, two months of health insurance and their earned vacation pay. Their cause has become a symbol of the anger that workers everywhere feel over the Wall Street bailout and the rising unemployment rate. Their fight was with an employer which was secretly setting up a low-wage factory in another state, but also with the Bank of America, which has received $25 billion in taxpayers' bailout money. This daring and militant fight back shows the way forward for the labor movement.

Event sponsored by Fight Back! Newspaper
www.fightbacknews.org
Info: (612) 370-0167