The Carter Gilson Report

Unionized workers are having to resort to actions not taken since the Great Depression. Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors closed down this Friday. The union, under the United Electrical Workers, has decided to use peaceful, yet forceful, means to highlight their situation.

Workers laid off from their jobs at a factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

About 200 employees of Republic Windows and Doors began their sit-in Friday, the last scheduled day of the plant’s operation.

Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give 60 days’ notice required by law before shutting down.

Workers also were angered when company officials didn’t show up for a meeting Friday that had been arranged by U.S. Rep Luis Gutierrez, a Chicago Democrat, she said.

So, workers are staging an action over severance, back vacation pay, and most of all, the WARN Act. The WARN Act provides that in a situation like this, where a mass lay-off will be happening, the workforce will be given 60 days warning. Long enough for many to find new jobs, get training to change careers, and then the company must provide a severance of some kind.

When I was working at RCN and they closed my call center, that is exactly how it happened. 60 days before they gathered us and gave us the news. At the time, it seemed unbelievable, but it also seemed like a long time, time enough to find something new. Some did, many did not. I was unemployed for six months from September 2003 to March 2004.

The workers at the Republic plant did not get this time before the doors were to close. So they are keeping the doors open.

During the peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

“We’re doing something we haven’t since the 1930s, so we’re trying to make it work,” Fried said.
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Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.

In other words, they’re hardly engaging in malicious acts. This is a modern sit-in, they won’t be cowed, and I kind of want to bake brownies for them. Alas, delivering them would be tough.