[Marxism] New York Times coverage of Chicago factory occupation

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On one matter I want to enter a caution. This action and Obama's sympathy
could encourage imitation, but I think we need to keep in mind that 500,000
jobs were lost in November and there are more coming. 

I myself have been unemployed since mid-March. (The 7-week extension of
unemployment compensation adopted by the lame-duck congressional session, at
the urging of the current bourgeois president-elect, may buy me some more
time but not much.)

These are not the most favorable times for labor actions, for the employers
(though they would prefer to need them from a profit point of view) need to
dispense with workers, plant, and all the rest, rather than engage more of
them.

So, if a national wave of labor actions develops quickly, it will be
something new under the sun. The current actions are more than I would
expect at this time. And I am for taking them as far as they can go.

On the other hand, the political shifts among working people, as registered
in part by the elections, have been positive.

Still, the tradition is that serious labor action tends to develop in the
conjunctural cyclical upturn within the more longterm crisis. We should hope
for the best, and move into whatever moves, but not bank too much yet on
immediate developments.
Fred Feldman 


December 8, 2008
In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide 
By MONICA DAVEY
CHICAGO ? The scene inside a long, low-slung factory on this city?s North
Side this weekend offered a glimpse at how the nation?s loss of more than
600,000 manufacturing jobs in a year of recession is boiling over. 

Workers laid off Friday from Republic Windows and Doors, who for years
assembled vinyl windows and sliding doors here, said they would not leave,
even after company officials announced that the factory was closing.

Some of the plant?s 250 workers stayed all night, all weekend, in what they
were calling an occupation of the factory. Their sharpest criticisms were
aimed at their former bosses, who they said gave them only three days?
notice of the closing, and the company?s creditors. But their anger
stretched broadly to the government?s costly corporate bailout plans, which,
they argued, had forgotten about regular workers.

?They want the poor person to stay down,? said Silvia Mazon, 47, a mother of
two who worked as an assembler here for 13 years and said she had never
before been the sort to march in protests or make a fuss. ?We?re here, and
we?re not going anywhere until we get what?s fair and what?s ours. They
thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for
Christmas, it doesn?t matter.?

The workers, members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America, said they were owed vacation and severance pay
and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law
when companies make layoffs. Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois,
said her office was investigating, and representatives from her office
interviewed workers at the plant on Sunday.

At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said the company
should follow through on its commitments to its workers.

?The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have
earned,? Mr. Obama said, ?I think they?re absolutely right and understand
that what?s happening to them is reflective of what?s happening across this
economy.?

Company officials, who were no longer at the factory, did not return
telephone or e-mail messages. A meeting between the owners and workers is
scheduled for Monday. The company, which was founded in 1965 and once
employed more than 700 people, had struggled in recent months as home
construction dipped, workers said. 

Still, as they milled around the factory?s entrance this weekend, some
workers said they doubted that the company was really in financial straits,
and they suggested that it would reopen elsewhere with cheaper costs and
lower pay. Others said managers had kept their struggles secret, at one
point before Thanksgiving removing heavy equipment in the middle of the
night but claiming, when asked about it, that all was well.

Workers also pointedly blamed Bank of America, a lender to Republic Windows,
saying the bank had prevented the company from paying them what they were
owed, particularly for vacation time accrued.

?Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be
paid?? said Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers. ?The taxpayers
would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.?s.?

In a statement issued Saturday, Bank of America officials said they could
not comment on an individual client?s situation because of confidentiality
obligations. Still, a spokeswoman also said, ?Neither Bank of America nor
any other third party lender to the company has the right to control whether
the company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitments to its
employees.?

Inside the factory, the ?occupation? was relatively quiet. The Chicago
police said that they were monitoring the situation but that they had had no
reports of a criminal matter to investigate. 

About 30 workers sat in folding chairs on the factory floor. (Reporters and
supporters were not allowed to enter, but the workers could be observed
through an open door.) They came in shifts around the clock. They tidied
things. They shoveled snow. They met with visiting leaders, including
Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats from
Illinois, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Throughout the weekend, people came by with donations of food, water and
other supplies.

The workers said they were determined to keep their action ? reminiscent,
union leaders said, of autoworkers? efforts in Michigan in the 1930s ?
peaceful and to preserve the factory. 

?The fact is that workers really feel like they have nothing to lose at this
point,? Ms. Fried said. ?It shows something about our economic times, and it
says something about how people feel about the bailout.?

Until last Tuesday, many workers here said, they had no sense that there was
any problem. Shortly before 1 p.m. that day, workers were told in a meeting
that the plant would close Friday, they said. Some people wept, others
expressed fury. 

Many employees said they had worked in the factory for decades. Lalo Muñoz,
who was among those sleeping over in the building, said he arrived 34 years
ago. The workers ? about 80 percent of them Hispanic, with the rest black or
of other ethnic and national backgrounds ? made $14 an hour on average and
received health care and retirement benefits, Ms. Fried said.

?This never happens ? to take a company from the inside,? Ms. Mazon said.
?But I?m fighting for my family, and we?re not going anywhere.?




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