Laid-Off Workers Occupy Chicago Factory

Sit-In Began Friday; Former Employees Say They Deserve Severance, Vacation Pay

(CBS/AP)  Workers who got three days' notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay.

About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days' notice required by law before shutting down.

"There is one thing that is absolutely clear," U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, told CBS Station WBBM. "They're owed 75 days of pay. They're owed their vacation time, and they're owed their fringe benefits - including healthcare benefits - during those 75 days."

Gutierrez added that Republic's abrupt decision to shut down is suspicious. He said he has a "very strong belief" that Republic is simply "recapitalizing and reorganizing its production in another state," and called on the Illinois Department of Labor to investigate, according to WBBM.

During the two-day peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," she said, referring to a tactic most famously used in 1936-37 by General Motors factory workers in Flint, Mich., to help unionize the U.S. auto industry.

Fried said the company can't pay its 300 employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors."

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Click to see CBS Affiliate WBBM's coverage of the sit-in.

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"Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.

"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."

Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."

"We're angry, we're frustrated. At this point we just don't know which end is up," fired Republic worker Melvin Maclin told WBBM. "We feel mistreated." Maclin said that workers were remaining in the factory not only to make a point, but also to protect the company's remaining assets.

Larry Spivack, regional director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, said the peaceful action will add to Chicago's rich history in the labor movement, which includes the 1886 Haymarket affair, when Chicago laborers and anarchists gathering in a square on the city's west side drew national attention after an unidentified person threw a bomb at police.

Left, worker Luis Lira sits in the lobby at the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Saturday, Dec. 6.

"The history of workers is built on issues like this here today," Spivack said.

Representatives of Republic Windows did not immediately respond Saturday to calls and e-mails seeking comment.

Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.

Workers were angered when company officials didn't show up for a meeting Friday that had been arranged by Gutierrez, Fried said. Union officials said another meeting with the company is scheduled for Monday afternoon.

"We're going to stay here until we win justice," said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours. Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she's owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck. Most of the factory's workers are Hispanic.

[whitemale08]

The United States is one of the poorest nations on earth because you can''t be in debt and wealthy at the same time.

We have managed to let Wall Street and the City of London to loot our country with hedge funds and ''buy-out-firms'' and take all the money to the Cayman Islands and Dubai.

Instead of protecting our economy from globalization with ''tarrifs'' like the Constitution dictates we''ve allowed our industries systematicly looted one by one since we abandoned the Bretton Woods in 1971 by Richard Nixon.

This is what happens when we embrace Keynesian economics and globalization. We have to go back to FDR and look beyond ''tax cuts for the rich'' so-called ''free-markets''.

We must cancel over a Quadrillion in derivatives NOW!

larouchepac.com

[titletrack]

No Bank will lend money to someone who is a "failing" business. BUT The government will!

Posted by swingset4u at 11:35 PM : Dec 07, 2008

That is why the government fails.

[swingset4u]

Why should a bank lend money to a failed business?

Posted by titletrack

No Bank will lend money to someone who is a "failing" business. BUT The government will!

[swingset4u]

Unfortunately I was just laid off too. I live in a small town. I can''t blame these folks for grabbing at every straw they can to protect their livelyhoods. We are in desparate times. If you have a job then you are lucky! Don''t criticize those less fortunate than you. I will be going door to door to find my next job. I will not wear a "sandwich board" to fritter the day away hoping someone hands me a job! Good luck to you al! God Bless!

[jowand]

Why should a bank lend money to a failed business?

Posted by titletrack at 10:44 PM : Dec 07, 2008

Same reason the US taxpayer loaned money to a failed bank.

[jowand]

Why don''''t these workers simply liberate this factory, and return to making windows and doors, sans their greedy, overpaid managers?

It worked in Argentina when their economy collapsed.

Posted by MikeTotten1 at 11:06 PM : Dec 07, 2008

Where are you posting from tonight Mohamed, Karachi PK or Bradford UK.

[talk2chief]

kgainer

Without "capitalists" what good is "labor". You need capital to pay wages.

[titletrack]

The capitalists could care less whether you live or die. I mean that literally and the incident in Chicago is just one illustration of this. They will steal from you til you are penniless, til you are left with literally nothing. The U.S. is the richest country in the World and yet the streets of the big cities are littered with individuals who have just been discarded as if they were trash. The capitalists will lie to you, cheat you, poison your environment, destroy the Planet, deceive you and in some dramatic cases from the past kill you outright if you oppose them. Do you really think a country such as ours where capitalists run amok in the streets is worth saving? Isn''''t the answer obvious?

Posted by kgainer at 10:56 PM : Dec 07, 2008

What are your marxists friends doing to help these people? Give them signs to hold?

The capitalists could care less whether you live or die. I mean that literally and the incident in Chicago is just one illustration of this. They will steal from you til you are penniless, til you are left with literally nothing. The U.S. is the richest country in the World and yet the streets of the big cities are littered with individuals who have just been discarded as if they were trash. The capitalists will lie to you, cheat you, poison your environment, destroy the Planet, deceive you and in some dramatic cases from the past kill you outright if you oppose them. Do you really think a country such as ours where capitalists run amok in the streets is worth saving? Isn''t the answer obvious?

[titletrack]

The ''''evil bankers'''' have done it again.

It will only get worse folks.

Posted by whitemale08 at 10:05 PM : Dec 07, 2008

Why should a bank lend money to a failed business?