US: The struggle at Republic Windows & Doors

[From www.ft-ci.org]

United States: Factory occupied in Chicago
By Celeste Murillo Thursday, December 11, 2008

On Friday, December 5, the workers of Republic Windows & Doors, a Chicago factory, faced with the sudden announcement of closure, voted to occupy the factory until the bosses pay for vacations they owe and severance pay. The same day the government announced that more than 500,000 jobs had been lost in November (2 million jobs lost in 2008), 250 workers, mainly Latinos (80% of the factory), decided not to bow their heads. With an enormous, serious social crisis, 6.7% unemployment (or 12.5%, counting those who are no longer looking for work and the underemployed), the struggle at Republic could become a first step of resistance against layoffs and the crisis.

“You got bailed out, we got sold out”

The bosses broke a basic labor law that demands 60 days’ advance notice and failed to pay the workers wages and vacation time owed, much less severance pay. Although the workers assert that the order books never indicated a crisis like the one the bosses are describing, the businessmen’s excuse is a lack of enough credit to go on functioning.

One of the most irritating factors, that provoked a wave of commitments to the workers’ struggle, is the fact that the bank that withdrew credit to finance wages and other expenditures is none other than the Bank of America, which got 25 billion dollars as part of the gigantic bailout the government carried out with public money. For that reason, one of the most frequent slogans is “You got bailed out, we got sold out!” Last weekend, the factory was visited by politicians and union leaders, on the edge of the massive solidarity from the Latino community, from Chicago workers, students and neighbors.

Yesterday’s outrageous bailout for the banks and financial institutions, denounced by some demonstrations, is now being questioned again and explains the ample national coverage of the conflict and the pressures the bank is getting to resume offering credit. The thing is, medium-sized businesses like Republic (with around 300workers, though at the peak of the real estate bubble it reached 700) are a sector particularly sensitive to the crisis underway, since they closely depend on bank credit. Besides, according to the official census (Bureau of Labor Statistics), 80% of workers work in businesses like Republic (companies with fewer than 1,000 employees). On the edge of this reality, these “average” businessmen have responded to the crisis just like capitalists of all sizes, by unloading the costs on the shoulders of workers. And businessmen like the Illinois Manufacturers' Association are afraid the struggle at Republic will become a symbol among factories that confront similar credit difficulties.

A struggle that bears witness

The method of struggle the workers chose, the plant occupation, the “sit-in,” as it is called in the US, has not been used since the 1930’s, when big struggles like Auto Lite in Toledo or General Motors in Michigan were carried out (see the supplement Lucha de Clases Nº 6), that challenged the bosses, who were speeding up the pace of production in factories, to recover from the crisis. Other than isolated examples, since that time, the workers have never occupied workplaces, a method that could be extended in a situation where layoffs are multiplying and there are fewer possibilities of getting work. Beyond its weight in the economy, the fight by the Republic workers raises an important precedent for working-class struggle. The action by the Chicago workers also has an enormous symbolic weight, since the plant occupation and direct action are quite rare among pressure tactics promoted by union bureaucrats, and that is why this struggle has won enormous sympathy among workers.

Union bureaucrats, legislators, the Governor, and even Obama himself, quickly came out to say that the workers “are right,” to ask for what belongs to them. What unites them [politicians and bureaucrats] is their fear of workers’ direct action. What they want to avoid, at all costs, is that this struggle should become an example in a wave of layoffs. That is why they do not dispute when businessmen unload the crisis onto the workers; neither the bureaucrats nor the bosses’ politicians are demanding that the firm should be reopened or that their books should be investigated, not even when there are rumors that the bosses would open a similar factory in another state! It is vital that the workers not allow themselves to be blackmailed by the “lack of credit” or the consequences of bad deals by the bosses. In the face of closures and layoffs, it is necessary to fight for nationalization without compensation of these businesses under workers’ control. At press time, negotiations were still being carried out, since, although the bank had agreed to a “limited loan,” the UE union said that an accord had not been reached.

“Now we are an example for lots of workers, if the companies treat them unfairly.” “This is going to change something,” said a worker at the door of Republic. The workers at Republic have to win and affirm once again that there is an alternative to what is offered by the conciliating bureaucracy, that never tires of surrendering the rights of the working class. A victory at Republic would strengthen the entire class that has been harshly punished and has big challenges in front of it.