The Workers' Republic: Chicago factory occupation wins!
Democracy Now! reports on the successful factory occupation in Chicago ('Change' we can really believe in):
"Workers have ended their six-day occupation of a shuttered Chicago factory after winning a settlement from their now former employers. The Republic Windows and Door factory closed last week after Bank of America cut off the company’s line of credit. The factory owners gave workers just three days’ notice of the plant’s closure. Many of the plant’s 250 union workers have been occupying the plant since Friday. Under the brokered deal, workers will each receive around two months’ worth of salary and healthcare benefits, as well as all accrued vacation pay. Most of the financing will come from Bank of America. The company relented after coming under heavy criticism for its role in blocking the employees’ pay despite receiving $25 billion in the taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout."
A group of about 65 workers who occupied a Goose Island window factory in 2008 have once again locked themselves inside the plant in a desperate move to save their jobs.
California-based Serious Energy said Thursday it is closing the plant's doors and consolidating operations in Colorado and Pennsylvania.
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Union leaders say they want time to buy the company or find a buyer. Negotiations inside the plant continue by phone with officials from the company in California.
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Serious Energy bought the 268,000 square foot plant in 2009 with the promise of hiring back the former Republic workers. Leah Fried, a spokeswoman for UE Local 1110, said that the new company never hired back more than 75 of the workers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/breaking/chi-republic-windows-redux-workers-occupy-goose-island-plant-20120223,0,4716311.story