Echoes of Flint in Chicago Factory

Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy, and Christopher Phelps, who teaches at Ohio State University at Mansfield, compare the Flint Sit-Down Strike with the current takeover of the Republic window factory in Chicago:

Just as FDR once told reporters, "If I worked in a factory, the first thing I would do is join a union," so too has President-elect Barack Obama declared the Republic workers "absolutely right" in their quest for remuneration. More importantly, Obama observed that the Republic factory closure "is reflective of what's happening across this economy."

Indeed, it is not just that workers are suffering during a severe recession, but that the owners of capital, both large and small, are morally compromised in the crisis that besets the nation.

Bank of America, the giant lender, played a large role in the Republic factory closure when the bank, noting a decline in Republic's sales, cut off the company's line of credit. In normal times, this would have been considered prudent banking practice, but just last month Bank of America received $25 billion in a financial bailout meant to keep loans and credit flowing.

But Main Street managers have dirty hands as well. According to the union, the owners of Republic Windows and Doors failed to give their workers a legally required 60-day notice that they would close. And the Chicago Tribune reports that in the weeks before the factory shutdown, people with apparent ties to Republic formed a corporation that bought a similar plant in western Iowa.

It is hardly surprising that Republic's workers have laid temporary claim to the factory in which some have given decades of their lives. Its owners and creditors have forfeited their own claims, both moral and legal, to rightful stewardship.

Layed Off But Not Leaving

There's a sit-down strike, of sorts, taking place in Chicago, except this time the workers have already lost their jobs.

Monica Davey of The New York Times reports:

"Scores of workers laid off from a factory here that makes windows and doors have refused to leave, deciding to stage a “peaceful occupation” of the plant around the clock this weekend as they demand pay they say is owed them.

"Workers at Republic Windows and Doors, which laid off about 250 people, said they were notified Tuesday that the plant, more than four decades old, would close Friday. They said they were given insufficient notice and were never paid for vacation days or severance.

"The workers, many of whom were sitting on fold-up chairs on the factory floor Saturday afternoon, said they would not leave.

"'They’re staying because the fact is that these workers feel they have nothing to lose at this point,' said Leah Fried, an organizer for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110, who said groups of 30 were occupying the plant in shifts. 'Telling them they have three days before they are out on the street, penniless, is outrageous.'"