[Marxism] 6 reports on Chicago sit-in; owner moving to Iowa

[Dayne Goodwin]

1) Socialist Worker, December 9

"Raising the Stakes at Republic" by Lee Sustar & Nicole Colson

DAY FOUR of the Republic Windows & Doors factory occupation in Chicago saw
another surge in labor solidarity--plus a rare boost from the media and
politicians trying to outdo one other in showing support for the struggle.

Just hours after the *Chicago Tribune* published a December 8 report
apparently verifying workers' suspicions that production had been moved from
their now-closed factory to a nonunion facility in Iowa, Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich arrived at the plant just north and west of downtown Chicago. .
.

Following a three-hour meeting on Monday afternoon between union, company
and bank representatives, it was announced that no settlement had been
reached and the sit-in would continue. A new round of talks was slated for
the next day--and if the workers don't get satisfaction, a big protest is
planed for 12 noon the following day at BoA's Chicago-area headquarters. . .

FOR REPUBLIC'S managers, the objective seems to be saving themselves at
workers' expense. Confirmation came on Monday that--as workers
suspected--Republic is not, in fact, shutting down operations, but planning
to move production to Iowa under a new name, "Echo Windows & Doors."

Reports indicate that Echo would be nonunion, pay only $9 an hour, and offer
workers limited benefits and no vacation pay for the first three years--a
drastic cut compared to the average $14-an-hour wage and health and
retirement benefits that Chicago Republic workers had been getting.

According to the *Chicago Tribune*:

People who apparently have ties to the financially strapped Republic Windows
formed a limited liability corporation in Illinois last month, Echo Windows
& Doors, that has bought a similar plant in western Iowa.

Sharon Gillman, who shares an address with Republic President and CEO Rich
Gillman, is listed as an officer of Echo Windows & Doors LLC, which was
incorporated in Illinois on November 18, according to secretary of state
records.

Neither she nor Rich Gillman could be reached for comment on Sunday. A
secretary who answered the phone at the Iowa plant purchased by Echo said
Rich Gillman was not in on Sunday, and that she did not know when he would
be in.

An "echowindows.com" Internet domain has been registered, but no content has
been placed on the site. The administrative contact on the domain
registration is Amy Zimmerman--the same name as the vice president of sales
and marketing at Republic...

Echo Windows officials told employees at the former TRACO manufacturing
plant in Red Oak, Iowa, on Thursday that the workforce would be doubled from
the current 50 employees because they have production orders lined up.

None of this surprises Melvin Maclin, vice president of UE Local 1110, and
Ron Bender, a union shop steward.

"I don't think they want to stay here, period," Bender said. Maclin added,
"It was never the owner's plan to save the plant. And the bank was aware of
it. I don't know that for a fact, but it seemed like the bank was aware of
what's going on. They were just running a game."

Whatever Republics' owners and BoA had planned last week, it's a different
world now. By trying to add to the misery of laid-off workers by stealing
their severance pay, they've managed to demonstrate to the world the
inequity and double standards of the Wall Street bailout.

And now they've discovered that workers are capable of demonstrating
something else--resolve, struggle and solidarity in what has become a
classic battle for workers' rights.

full at:
http://socialistworker.org/2008/12/09/raising-the-stakes-at-republic


2) Monday, December 08, 2008

Associated Press
CHICAGO —  U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez says a meeting to resolve a four-day
sit-in at a Chicago factory has ended without a resolution, but the sides
will reconvene on Tuesday.

Gutierrez says the meeting between representatives from Republic Windows and
Doors, Bank of America and the employees' union on Monday night at the
bank's downtown headquarters went very well, but there's still no solution.

Gutierrez says the tone was reconciliation. He says Bank of America invited
everyone back at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The factory closed abruptly last week after Bank of America canceled the
company's financing. Since then, about 200 laid-off workers have taken turns
occupying the factory. They say they're not leaving until they know they'll
get severance and accrued vacation pay.

3) N.Y. Times
"Illinois Threatens Bank Over Sit-In"

By MONICA DAVEY December 8, 2008

CHICAGO — As workers at a window-making plant here prepared to spend a
fourth night in the factory they had been told to leave for good, union
leaders, bankers and company owners met into the night on Monday but the
meetings ended without bringing about an end to the workers' peaceful but
increasingly tense occupation of the plant.

The layoff of 250 workers last week at Republic Windows and Doors on the
North Side with only three days' warning and without pay the workers say is
owed to them had, by Monday, drawn the attention of nearly every politician
with a connection to this city, numerous union and workers' rights groups
and scores of ordinary people, who arrived at the plant offering families
toys, food and money.

Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, who met with the workers Monday morning, said the
State of Illinois was suspending its business with the Bank of America,
Republic Windows' lenders, and that the Illinois Department of Labor was
poised to file a complaint over the plant closing if need be. Political
leaders on the Chicago City Council and in Cook County threatened similar
actions. Representative Luis V. Gutierrez said he was encouraging the
Department of Labor and the Department of Justice to investigate. "Families
are already struggling to keep afloat," Mr. Blagojevich said.

Workers here say they blame the operators of Republic Windows and Doors, a
manufacturing company that was founded in 1965, for giving them just three
days' notice before closing last Friday, with no earlier hints to the
employees that orders for vinyl windows and sliding doors had fallen off.

Late Monday, the company released a statement that indicated that it had
known since at least mid-October that it intended to close the factory by
January. The statement suggested that it had gone back and forth with Bank
of America for more than a month, but that the bank had rejected several of
its "wind down" plans as well as the company's request for financing to pay
workers' owed vacation.

The statement also revealed that the family of Richard Gillman, once a
minority shareholder who in 2006 and 2007 bought out Republic, last month
formed a new window business — Echo Windows LLC. All along, workers here
said they feared the owners were shutting down to reopen a cheaper operation
somewhere else. A trade publication reported last week that Echo had
recently bought a window manufacturing plant in Red Oak, Iowa. No one from
Republic could be reached for comment.

"It is looking like reopening is exactly what happened," said Tara Taffera,
the editor and publisher of the publication, Door and Window Manufacturing
magazine.

The company's statement said it had been placed, "in the impossible position
of not having the ability to further reduce fixed costs, coupled with severe
constrictions in the capital debt markets and an unwillingness of the
current debt holder to continue funding the operations."

The workers here also blamed Bank of America for preventing the owners from
paying its workers for already-earned vacation time and severance. Workers
here said the owners told them last week that Bank of America had cut off
the company's credit line and would not allow payments.

As part of government bailout efforts for the struggling banking industry,
Bank of America has received $15 billion, and is expected to receive an
additional $10 billion. That fact left many workers here seething.

"Taxpayers would like to see that bailout money go toward saving jobs, not
saving C.E.O.'s," said Leah Fried, an organizer for the United Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers of America. "This is outrageous."

Officials said negotiations would resume Tuesday.

Bank of America issued a statement late Monday stating that the company, not
the bank, had the ability to choose whether to honor what it owed workers.

"We agree with the statements of public officials that Republic Windows and
Doors should do all it can to honor its obligations to its employees and
minimize the impact of failure on those employees," the statement said.

"When a company faces such a dire situation, its lender is not empowered to
direct the company's management how to manage its affairs and what
obligations should be paid," it went on. "Such decisions belong to the
management and owners of the company."

Federal law from the late 1980s requires employers to give workers 60 days'
notice (or 60 days of pay) in cases of plant closings or large layoffs.
Still, that federal law, known as the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act, or WARN, provides exceptions in cases when a "faltering
company" is actively seeking capital to save itself and has reason to
believe announcing a possible closing might prevent it from getting that
capital or in "unforeseeable business circumstances," like unexpected
conditions outside an employer's control.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/us/09chicago.html?em


4) Republic Windows owner linked to Iowa plant purchase
BY PETER SACHS

Chi*Town Daily News
December 08, 2008 | 7:18 PM

A company managed by the wife of Republic Windows and Doors owner Richard
Gillman recently purchased an Iowa plant that manufactures similar products,
according to public records.

Gillman has come under fire in recent days for abruptly closing Republic's
Goose Island plant and refusing to provide workers there with the 60 days
notice and pay required by federal labor law.

Echo Windows and Doors was created two weeks ago and lists Sharon Gillman as
its manager, according copies of records obtained by the Daily News from the
Iowa Secretary of the State. According to Cook County property tax records,
Sharon Gillman is Richard Gillman's wife.

The couple purchased a $2.6 million Oak Street condo together in 2007,
according to property records.

The Gillmans could not be reached for comment today. But this afternoon,
Richard Gillman released a statement confirming the creation of the new
company.

Also, Amy Zimmerman, who has served as Republic's marketing director, is now
listed as the contact on the newly registered echowindows.com domain name.
She refused comment today.

Republic officials have blamed the shutdown on Bank of America's refusal to
provide continued financing.

Republic employees have staged a sit-in at the company's plant since Friday,
and have enlisted numerous politicians in their cause.

Earlier today, Gov. Rod Blagojevich said the state would stop doing business
with the bank until it gives Republic the money it needs to stay afloat.
Local elected officials, as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and
President-elect Barack Obama, have urged the company to give the workers
their 60 days of pay.

The Iowa plant was formerly operated by TRACO, a window company
headquartered in Pennsylvania. Traco confirmed the sale to Echo in a news
release last week.

Workers at the plant say Echo officials visited the plant on Thursday,
informing them of the sale and shutting down production briefly to do a full
inventory of the factory.

"Everybody seemed like they were just kind of confused the day that I was
there," says Herald Wiltshire, an employee there.

Two weeks ago, Traco switched from running two production shifts per day to
just one, citing slowing orders for their windows, Wiltshire said. About
that same time, the company announced layoffs at another one of its
factories, in Bainbridge, Ga., the Post-Searchlight newspaper reported.

But on Friday, the Red Oak plant started up its second shift again,
following the announcement from Echo, Wiltshire says.

http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/Republic_Windows_owner_linked_to_Iowa_plant_purchase,19712


5) Bloomberg News, December 9
"Illinois Threat to Bank of America is Dangerous, Critics Say"

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agOFtufX.FXQ&refer=home


6) Los Angeles Times, December 9
"Chicago factory sit-in offers a window onto hard times"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-worker-sit-in9-2008dec09,0,7863346.story