AMERICAN LABOUR:

SOLIDARITY WITH QUAD CITY DIE CASTING WORKERS:

The following item came to Molly's attention via the Anarchist Black Cat discussion board. It is originally from an Illinois blog titled 'At Home He's a Tourista'. The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America mentioned below is a member controlled union that is on the forefront of creative labour struggle in the USA. They are the people who won the struggle at Republic Window and Doors in Chicago via an occupation of the Chicago factory. As the signs above say, Wells Fargo is a "roadblock to recovery", and the protesters involved did their own roadblock to demonstrate that.

ALALALALALALAL

UE Workers Block Intersection, Get Arrested In Attempt to Save Jobs:

On Thursday, July 9th, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America members, SDS-Milwaukee and a host of supporters picketed a Wells Fargo branch in Rock Island, Illinois. Twelve people were arrested, cited, and then released after unfurling a banner and blocking an intersection in an act of civil disobedience.

This action is part of a UE driven campaign to pressure Wells Fargo into using some of the $25 billion in government bailout money it received for extending credit to the Quad City Die Casting company in Moline, Illinois. Without the money, the plant will be forced to close and around one hundred workers will be left unemployed.

http://athomehesaturista.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/ue-workers-block-intersection-get-arrested-in-attempt-to-save-jobs/

ALALALALALALAL

Here's the story as told by the UE themselves on their website.

ALALALALALALAL

Workers Arrested in Big Protest at Wells Fargo, As Quad City Workers Continue Fight for Jobs:
10 July, 2009
Rock Island, IL
A big group of UE Local 1174 members and supporters from other unions demonstrated at Wells Fargo’s Rock Island branch on Thursday, July 9. Nearly a dozen workers were arrested after they blocked a street to symbolize how Wells Fargo is a “roadblock to recovery.”

Workers are continuing their fight to keep Quad City Die Casting open and save 100 jobs. The plant is slated to close because Wells Fargo – recipient of $25 billion in the federal banking bailout – has cut off operating credit to the company.

Asked by a TV reporter why she’d been willing to be arrested, Local 1174 Recording Secretary Deb Johann replied, “Because I want to save my job.”

More details on this protest and Local 1174’s continuing struggle at ueillinois.com.

ALALALALALALAL

The protest at Rock island is only part of a continuing campaign on the part of the UE to save the Quad City jobs. Wells Fargo, a recipient of government bailout aid, is being picketed across the country to do the right thing. Here, once more from the UE website, is a report on the 'Day of Action' last June 23.

ALALALALALALAL

EXPANDED COVERAGE: Day of Action Against Wells Fargo:
26 June, 2009
MORE: PHOTOS, VIDEOS and STORIES are at ueillinois.org
In some 20 cities across the U.S. on June 23, UE members and allies took action at branch offices of banking giant Wells Fargo, and in some cases its subsidiary Wachovia, from Boston to Los Angeles. Joined by members of other unions, Jobs with Justice and community organizations, members chanted and carried signs with the message, “You got bailed out, we got sold out!” Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks and the recipient of a $25 billion bailout from taxpayers, is unfairly forcing the closure of Quad City Die Casting, a viable factory in Moline, IL where the members of UE Local 1174 work, by cutting off the normal line of credit the company needs in oder to operate and stay in business.

Here are brief reports from some of the protest sites.
PHILADELPHIA
Some 33 people from UE and Jobs with Justice protested at a Wachovia bank (owned by Wells Fargo) in downtown Philadelphia, and handed out nearly 500 leaflets on the Quad City jobs fight.

Local 155 President Ron McCullough explained to the group – and to hundreds of onlookers – the struggle by Local 1174 to save their jobs and Wells Fargo’s role in forcing the pending plant closing of Quad City Die Casting. Protesters picketed for about 30 minutes, and then a delegation, consisting of Philadelphia Jobs with Justice Chair John Braxton and McCullough went inside to deliver a “notice of default” on Wells Fargo’s obligations to the American people.

McCullough repeatedly asked to see the bank manager in order to deliver the notice, but one bank employee after another refused to summon the manager, ordered McCullough and Braxton to leave immediately, and threatened to call the police. McCullough refused to leave, saying he’d do so after he delivered the document to the manager. The attention of the 30 or more customers in the bank lobby was riveted onto this confrontation. In an effort to silence free speech in the city that's the home of the Liberty Bell and birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, bank managers called the cops. But before the police arrived a bank official, identifying himself as the assistant manager, finally accepted the letter.

The picketing continued for a while after Ron and John emerged from the bank. One young woman stopped to observe the protest. After she read the UE flyer she became so incensed by Wells Fargo’s action that she also went inside to tell bank officials what she thought of Wells Fargo.
LOS ANGELES
At Wells Fargo’s main office center in downtown Los Angeles, activists ranging in age from 11 to 81 conducted an informational picket line. Chants like “Wells Fargo, Shame On You – You Got Bailed Out and Workers Got Sold Out,” echoed off the high-rise building while security guards kept close watch. Hundreds of fliers explaining the struggle of UE Local 1174 workers were distributed and well received, especially by bus riders and building workers, but got a less friendly response from executive types in expensive pin-striped suits. The action was organized by the Los Angeles Bail Out the People Movement.
COSTA MESA, CA
A relatively small UE group picketed Wells Fargo’s branch in Costa Mesa, but their presence and their signs got plenty of notice on one of the busiest streets in Orange County. There were plenty of friendly from passing drivers, and Bryan Martindale of Local 1421 uses a megaphone to lead the group in chants. After about about 25 minutes the members went inside to present a letter to the branch manager. She smiled and did not ask any questions. Local 1421's Brian Barrington presented the letter and we asked that she pass the message on to higher corporate management.
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA
Twenty members of UE Local 893/IUP and Local 896/COGS, along with supporters from the Hawkeye Labor Council and other local groups, picketed and leafleted a Wells Fargo office in Cedar Rapids over their lunch hour, in solidarity with UE Local 1174 members at Quad City Die Casting. Passing motorists honked their horns in support. Two local TV stations and the Cedar Rapids Gazette sent reporters to cover this event.
DAVENPORT, IA
Workers and clergy from the Quad Cities area, including Local 1174 members, confronted Wells Fargo management at its Davenport, IA office and asked bank officials to accept “a plea for justice from the community.” Bank executives called the police, but this did not deter a five-person delegation from entering their building. The bank official they encountered refused to give her name, but accepted the letter handed her by C.J. Hawkins of Interfaith Worker Justice, and agreed to deliver it to the bank’s regional president. UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley told the group, “We can’t let this giant bank default on its obligation to the American people and the people of the Quad Cities. Wells Fargo is a roadblock to economic recovery.”
CHICAGO
In Chicago some 75 protestors from several unions and community groups cordoned off the parking lot of a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage branch with crime scene tape, and traced chalk outlines of the bank’s worker victims on the pavement, charging the bank with “jobicide” and “homeicide.” They chanted, “Wells Fargo, this sucks. Where’s our 25 billion bucks?” The group included UE Local 1110 members and members of UFCW Local 881, Teamsters Local 743, SEIU Local 73, the Graduate Students Organization at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Arise Chicago, Center for a New Community, and South Austin Coalition.
ATLANTA
Barbara Joye of the Atlanta Fighting Foreclosures Coalition reports that some 20 intrepid demonstrators picketed in front of the midtown Wachovia branch today, in punishing afternoon heat. The giant regional bank Wachovia was bought out by Wells Fargo last October, in the midst of the banking industry meltdown. Besides demanding that Wells Fargo extend the credit needed to keep UE Quad City Die Casting workers in their jobs, Barbara writes, “We also reminded the bank that we are still demanding a foreclosure moratorium and reasonable settlements for Atlantans at risk of losing their homes.”
CHARLESTON, WV
Wells Fargo managers in Charleston seemed to know protestors were coming and were waiting for them. The branch manager and his posse met union supporters at the entrance before they had even picked up a sign.

About 20 members of UE Local 170 were joined by activists from the Citizen Action Group and Mountaineers for a National Health Plan. They got a good response from the public as they leafleted, picketed, and chanted, “You got bailed out, we got sold out.” The event received TV and newspaper coverage.
BOSTON
In the midst of a nasty nor’easter storm, 30 picketers marched outside the Boston Wells Fargo Commercial Bank building. Members from UE Locals 204, 262, 279, other unions, Jobs with Justice, housing groups, and students joined the National Day of Action on Wells Fargo locations. An excessive number of security personnel were in place before the picket even began, and they prevented a delegation of UE members and supporters from entering the building to deliver a message to bank executives.
NEW HAVEN, CT
A delegation of UE members and supporters took the Quad City workers’ struggle to the downtown New Haven branch of Wachovia bank, now a subsidiary of Wells Fargo. It included six members from Local 243 at Sargent Manufacturing, Local 222 President Marie Lausch, former Local 299 President Dorothy Johnson, and Bill Collins, a singer with the Rabble Rousers who’s written a song about the Republic plant occupation. A delegation went inside to meet the branch manager, but neither he nor the assistant manager were available. They spoke to a lower-ranking bank operative who took the leaflet and “managed to look very concerned over workers losing their jobs,” reports UE International Rep. Carol Lambiase. She was banned from taking photos inside marble walls of the bank. Marie Lausch and Local 243 President Ray Pompano led chants, using Local 243’s bullhorn. Passersby took leaflets and expressed support.
PORTLAND, OR
A small but spirited group of 20 including Marianne Hart, retired Local 1421 leader and former member of UE's General Executive Board, carried both Jobs with Justice and UE signs supporting the fight of Quad City workers, and received a welcoming response from passersby. The Portland Wells Fargo branch is a large classic bank building in the style of a Greek temple, and the group took over the platform in front of the entrance, at the top of the marble stairs. They shouted a call-and-response chant: “When I say bankers, you say gangsters. Bankers! Gangsters! Bankers! Gangsters!”
LACROSSE, WI
UE Local 1121 President Charlene Winchell blasted Wells Fargo for its failure to use taxpayer bailout money as intended, to make credit available to businesses and save jobs, as a dozen UE members picketed its branch in LaCrosse. “If they don’t keep their jobs, people are going to lose more homes,” said Winchell. “More people on unemployment. It’s going to be awful. It’s going to affect all of us.” A union delegation got inside the bank and spoke to a bank official about the plight of Quad City Die Casting and the 80 members of Local 1174. The event received local TV coverage.
ERIE, PA
A dozen UE members from Locals 506, 618, 683 and 684, as well as Eastern Region Pres. Andrew Dinkelaker, took the case of Local 1174 members against Wells Fargo to the bank’s office in downtown Erie. Two local TV stations covered the action.
WASHINGTON, DC
Over the past several days a UE lobbying team has visited over 100 congressional offices, including every member of both the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee. The members of Congress were given information on the injustice being perpetrated by Wells Fargo, and asked to intervene. While on Capitol Hill UE Political Action Director Chris Townsend spoke with Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) chair of the House Financial Services Committee, and delivered a detailed letter explaining the situation at Quad City Die Casting to Frank's office. Rep. Frank has assisted UE members numerous times over the years, including his personal intervention on behalf of UE Local 204, Taunton, MA, during a difficult recent round of contract negotiations.

In a brief encounter in a corridor, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) told Townsend, “Everyone is mad at Wells Fargo.” The largest city in her state, Baltimore, is suing Wells Fargo for racially-discriminatory predatory mortgage lending practices that resulted in massive foreclosures and cost the city tens of millions of dollars in taxes and city services.

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-USA/FRANCE:

WORKPLACE OCCUPATIONS WORK:

While they never truly disappeared, strikes that take the form of workplace occupations are becoming more and more common in these hard economic times. While it would be gratifying if more of them were to take the form of permanent occupations where the workplace is reopened as a producers' cooperative, such as what has happened often in Argentina, even as limited pressure tactics on management these occupation deliver the goods better than more traditional strike tactics do. Two recent examples are cited below. The first is from the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. The item below is from the AFL-CIO blog, and it avoids the issue of the fact that the union representing the workers at Republic, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE), is not a member of the AFL-CIO. The UE considers the structure of the AFL-CIO to be undemocratic. Still, I guess that the AFL-CIO are to be commended for inviting the UE to speak to them.

************

USA:
Union Leader at Republic Windows: ‘We Don’t Have to Wait Until the Boss Screws Us’:
by James Parks, Apr 16, 2009
The power of workers comes through with a union. That’s the message and lesson learned during the successful sit-in by nearly 300 workers at the Republic Windows & Doors plant in Chicago last December.

Workers at Republic made justice happen. After a six-day sit-in at the plant, the workers, members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, faced down the company and one of the nation’s biggest financial institutions. The company announced it was shutting down and that the workers would not receive the severance and accrued vacation pay they were owed (see video).

Bank of America, which received billions in taxpayer bailout funds, cut off the company’s line of credit. Outraged by the move, a coalition of workers, community groups, politicians and religious leaders shamed the bank and company into backing down.

UE Organizing Director Bob Kingsley, speaking at a brown-bag discussion at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., told the audience the Republic workers’ battle “could not have been won without the labor and community support.”

There were demonstrations in places I never heard of. We had major league international union support.

Not only did that community support play a big role in the workers’ victory at Republic, it was crucial to getting the workers back on the job after the plant closed. The Republic plant is scheduled to reopen in coming weeks under a new owner, Serious Materials. UE members will be recalled to their jobs as work ramps up at the plant, under a new UE contract negotiated with the plant’s new owners.

Serious Materials, which makes energy efficient “green” windows, was first alerted to the plant’s availability by the Sierra Club, one of the groups backing the workers’ strike, Kingsley said.

Because of the Republic workers’ struggle, all workers are better off, says AFL-CIO Organizing Director Ken Zinn.

If they had not had a union, they would have all had to go home with nothing.

Local 1110 President Armando Robles says what happened to the Republic workers can happen anywhere. That’s why we need to push Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The workers won because they have a union and can come together to fight for their rights, he said. Now is the time to mobilize to protect workers’ rights, he said.(Molly Note-It really has to be mentioned here, that the obvious is true, that the union at Republic organized without the EFCA, and that the wide support that they received had nothing whatsoever to do with any gift of government, no matter how much some in the American union movement may think that such a gift is the solution to all their problems. No, when the Democratic friends of the AFL-CIO do pass the EFCA then the great masses of American workers will not suddenly and magically flock to the unions to sign up. It is a long standing anarchist contention that dependence on state handouts produces little of value, and that actual gains have to be won by real organizing. They aren't granted by government.)
The battle is not over. It is time to start acting and talking. We don’t have to wait until the boss screws us.

************

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, workers at FCI Microconnections in Mantes-la-Jolie in France also occupied their workplace. Despite being represented by the Communist dominated CGT, whose conservatism makes the AFL-CIO look like the CNT, the workers persisted and won their demands. This goes to show, once more, the power of this tactic. Here's the story from the pages of the British site LibCom.

************

FRANCE:

Electronics workers save their jobs in France:
After an occupation and strike lasting over six weeks workers at the FCI Microconnections in Mantes-la-Jolie have saved their jobs.

The strike began on February 24th with workers demanding assurances on their future. Management refusal to give information on production at an equivalent factory in Singapore and an announcement that there was 'overstaffing' led workers to believe that the company was planning to shut the factory down and shift production. Over half of the factory's 400 workers occupied the factory to prevent any removal of equipment.





Workers held the factory and picketed for seven weeks, in spite of a legal order to quit the premises issued on the 26th of March. 100 workers responded by going to the company headquarters in Versailles and blockading the chief executive in the building for four hours to demand negotiations.





Management continued to deny that any redundancies were planned until the CGT uncovered a document detailing a redundancy plan for November on the 3rd of April. This increased support amongst the workers, especially the non-strikers.





A week later after negotiations between the CGT and CFDT unions and management, mediated by the region's sous-prefet and the work and employment bureau, an agreement was announced. The workers had succeeded in winning a guarantee that the factory would stay open until 2014 with no job losses before 2011. Workers also won payment for 27 of their 34 strike days.

HUMOUR:

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM 'THE BOSS':

Molly has been exploring the cartoon section of the website of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, and has come up with several great gems. See above for one with a seasonal resonance.

AMERICAN LABOUR:
IT'S OFFICIAL- VICTORY FOR THE SIT-IN STRIKERS AT REPUBLIC WINDOWS AND DOORS:
The news is in, and it's now official- JP Morgan Chase and the Bank of America have agreed to a $1.75 million loan that will allow a decent settlement for the workers who have been occupying the plant at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago. See articles below for more details of the settlement. This agreement is truly historic for American labour as it is standing proof that militant tactics such as factory occupations and massive public outreach can succeed in making the corporate barons, so far the only people to actually benefit from the US government's bailouts, cough up at least a small portion of the goods. What follows are a few perspectives on the struggle. We begin with an article from Labor Notes by Jerry Mead Lucero who covered the fight extensively from Chicago in his Pilsen Prole Blog. What is particularly interesting about this article is the news of an initiative on the part of the union to reopen the plant under "new management" One hopes that the option of a producers' cooperative would be one of the avenues explored.
..............................
Chicago Sitdown Strike Produces Win for Workers, Anger against Banks:
— Jerry Mead-Lucero
Hundreds of supporters gathered in Chicago's financial district to condemn Bank of America, which refused financing for Republic after receiving $25 billion as part of the Wall Street bailout.
When managers informed the workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago that the plant would close in three days’ time, the announcement was no surprise.




Suspicion that something was wrong had been floating around the workplace for weeks before the December 2 announcement. “We’ve had a lot of our machines taken out of the plant at night,” said Melvin Maclin, vice president of United Electrical Workers (UE) Local 1110 and a seven-year employee. “And along with the machines go people’s jobs.”




Concerned that Republic’s owners would remove or sell off the remaining machinery before they handed over pay for severance and vacation time already accrued, the workers brought in a local congressman, Representative Luis Gutierrez.




But management failed to show at a meeting with Gutierrez, leading workers to take a dramatic stand that confounded expectations about the U.S. labor movement, long in retreat.
They refused to leave the plant at closing time December 5, voting unanimously to occupy their factory, the first such action in the United States in years.




Lalo Munoz, an employee of Republic for 34 years, said workers were determined to fight. “They decided just to kick (us) into the streets, with no benefits or nothing, not even what we have already earned,” he said.




The occupation lasted six days, until a unanimous December 10 vote among the 240 workers accepted a severance package worth about $7,000 per worker. The deal also includes two months of health care, a crucial gain for workers who discovered that their coverage had been unilaterally yanked.
WHO GETS BAILED OUT?
Republic management laid the blame on its primary financier, Bank of America, claiming the bank’s refusal to extend further credit to the company caused the shutdown.




Company representatives insisted that without further credit they could not pay workers the severance they were owed—although information surfaced days into the occupation that owners had found enough cash recently to purchase a non-union window factory in Iowa.




A Chicago councilman who had seen company documents said workers in Iowa would be paid one-third of what Republic workers earned. In 1996, the company received a $9.6 million subsidy from Chicago to place the factory in the city.




The Republic workers turned their attention to Bank of America. Jobs with Justice helped the union organize a press conference outside the bank’s Chicago headquarters, where speakers hammered the bank for refusing to release to Republic a tiny fraction of the $25 billion it was granted in the $700 billion Wall Street bailout.




The plant occupation tapped into simmering discontent nationwide about banks’ refusal to open credit lines that could help struggling firms survive . Dozens of protests sprouted across the country in front of Bank of America branches.




As harsh as Republic’s stance seemed, Chicago organizers emphasized that the company’s refusal to give the legally required 60 days’ notice of a plant closing and to pay severance was by no means unique.




A bakery and a potato chip plant, both large and unionized factories, are just two that have shuttered in Chicago in recent years without following the plant-closing law.




“This is not an exceptional practice,” said Adam Kader, director of Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues (CICWI), a worker center involved in campaigns to recover severance pay. “This is standard practice.”




Workers at Republic, however, were uniquely prepared to fight their plant closing. Before the occupation, they were already well-known in Chicago labor circles. A mostly African-American and immigrant Latino workforce, they organized into UE Local 1110 four years ago after dumping a company union that had agreed to a wage freeze and had allowed dozens of workers to be fired with no protest.




“There is a political tradition that the UE has nurtured, and when the time was right, it presented itself and they could seize the moment. The organizers were quick on the uptake to understand the issue at hand and fit it into the global context. They did it brilliantly,” says Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
SPARKING THE FIRE
Word of the workers’ decision spread rapidly among Chicago labor and social justice activists. Within hours a prayer vigil, organized by CICWI, had been planned. Supporters appeared at the factory’s entrance bearing gifts of food, coffee, blankets, and sleeping bags. They signed posters that workers taped to the factory walls, with messages like “Thanks for showing us all how to fight back” and “You are an inspiration to us all.”




Hundreds of supporters showed up to the prayer vigil, and workers received statements of solidarity from as far away as France and Argentina, where factory occupations are a more familiar form of protest.




The occupation entered the national stage in full force after President-elect Obama voiced his support. The Republic workers make energy-efficient doors and windows, products at the core of Obama’s call for a new, more environmentally sustainable economy.




Local politicians threatened to pull city and state business with the Bank of America, and apparently offered other promises of assistance to the workers, too. UE Western Region President Carl Rosen announced he was working with state agencies to find financing to re-open Republic under new management, and UE announced the creation of a fund to restart the plant.
Given the scale of public and political support, it was only a matter of time before the workers won their demand for the severance legally mandated under plant-closing laws.




Some pumped-up supporters are wondering whether the Republic victory will be a spark that re-ignites the labor movement.




“We really feel like we had an obligation to working class people to win this fight,” said UE international representative Mark Meinster, “because of what it could mean for workers in this country.”
.............................
What follows is the official statement from the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, known in brief as the United Electrical Workers. Molly, as a Canadian, has to confess to having been rather unacquainted with this American union before now. At best I knew they were an old CIO outfit of extremely progressive views who had managed to survive decades after being attacked for being "communist influenced". Their website and the Wikipedia article on the union gives a wealth of detail, and I have to say that they are truly outstanding. No doubt "communists" or at least people sympathetic to that sort of politics were indeed active in the union, but it was actually a collection of many others such as radical Christians, socialists and even ex members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) whose anti-communist credentials could hardly be disputed. The actual position of the UE differed markedly from that of the CP at many points during the decades of its existence.



In more recent years the UE has been a bastion of union democracy, community unionism, ant-racism and proper management of union funds. Today the UE retains its position of "political independence" which they define on their website as:



"Independent means independence of the two major political parties (Republicans and Democrats). UE maintains that both parties are too closely tied to the wealthy and big corporations to be dependable advocates for working people. UE political action is issue-oriented. We "independently" formulate our own political goals- not taking them from any political party or other group- then fight for them through political action"



The UE refuses to maintain "political action funds" that can be dispensed to political parties without the say-so of union members, as is unfortunately the case in most American and Canadian unions. Perhaps just as importantly the UE constitution states that its officers will have "a salary not to exceed the highest weekly wage paid in the industry". All raises to officials must be approved as amendments to the union's constitution. the result is that UE officials are paid a fraction of what officials in other unions are. A great barrier to careerism and bureaucracy.



What Molly, as an extreme anti-communist, can say is that if the UE was the sort of "communist front" that its right wing detractors say it is- which it isn't- then Molly would have few objections to "communism". Ah well, here's the notice from the UE...

...........................

'Yes' Vote at Republic: Workers Get Pay, Plant Occupation Ends:
10 December, 2008
CHICAGO
After the conclusion of negotiations Wednesday evening, the membership of Local 1110, more than 200 workers, met in the plant cafeteria to hear and consider the tentative settlement that had been worked out by UE negotiators over the past three days.




The settlement was approved by a unanimous vote.
'We Did It!'
Following the vote, the UE members, led by Local President Armando Robles, marched out of the plant, chanting “We did it!” in English and Spanish.




Pres. Robles stepped to the microphones outside the front entrance to the plant, where a throng of reporters and cameras had been waiting. "The occupation is over," he announced. "We have achieved victory. We said we will not go until we got justice, and we have it."




UE Western Region President Carl Rosen, who led the union negotiating team, then described the negotiations, summarized the settlement agreement, and commented on the significance of the struggle and the workers' achievement.
Pay, Health Care, Vacation Pay
The settlement totals $1.75 million. It will provide the workers with:
***Eight weeks of pay they are owed under the federal WARN Act,
***Two months of continued health coverage and,
***Pay for all accrued and unused vacation.




JPMorgan Chase will provide $400,000 of the settlement, with the balance coming from Bank of America.
Third Party Fund
Although the money will be provided as a loan to Republic Windows and Doors, it will go directly into a third-party fund whose sole purpose is to pay the workers what is owed them. (NB-MOLLY)




As the Local 1110 leaders characterized the settlement, “We fought to make them pay what they owe us, and we won.”
'Historic Victory'
UE Director of Organization Bob Kingsley spoke on behalf of the National Union, describing the outcome of the occupation as “a victory for workers everywhere,” and as “an historic victory for America’s labor movement.”




Kingsley went on to call the settlement “a win for all working men and women who face uncertainty, unfairness and job loss in a troubled economy.”
The 'Window of Opportunity Fund' (Another NB-MOLLY)
Kingsley then announced the creation of a new foundation, dedicated to reopening the plant. It will be initiated with seed money from the UE national union and the thousands of dollars of donations to UE Local 1110's Solidarity Fund that have come in from across the country and around the world in just the past five days.




Melvin Maclin, vice president of Local 1110, announced the name of the foundation, which was chosen by the workers themselves: the Window of Opportunity Fund. Maclin said that the fund will be open to receive donations from all friends of the Republic workers and supporters of their struggle.




Rosen introduced U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, praising the congressman for his tireless work in behalf of the Republic workers and indispensable role in bringing about the settlement. Gutierrez spoke at some length, and then introduced David Rudis, Illinois state president for Bank of America. In a statement to reporters, Rep. Gutierrez said, "This money will only be used to pay the workers the benefits they are owed under the law, and it will not under any circumstance be used for corporate bonuses, luxury cars or any other perk for the owners of the plant."
..........................
Finally, here is the notice from the Jobs With Justice Coalition who did much to help the workers to victory. The following includes some plugs for JwJ's other efforts.
.........................

VICTORY at Republic Windows and Doors!‏:
VICTORY AT REPUBLIC WINDOWS AND DOORS!
Workers Vote to Get Pay; Occupation Ends!
After 6 days occupying the plant, workers at Republic Window and Doors in Chicago voted to accept a settlement late on December 10th.



The settlement totals $1.75million. It will provide the workers with:
- Eight weeks of pay they are owed under the federal WARN Act;
- Two months of continued health coverage, and;
- Pay for all accrued and unused vacation.



JPMorgan Chase will provide $400,000 of the settlement, with the balance coming from Bank of America. Although the money will be provided as a loan to Republic Windows and Doors, it will go directly into a third-party fund whose sole purpose is to pay the workers what is owed them. In addition, the UE has started the "Window of Opportunity Fund" dedicated to re-opening the plant.



As the Local 1110 leaders characterized the settlement, "We fought to make them pay what they owe us, and we won." Read more about the settlement here.



We want to extend a big THANK YOU to all of you who participated in this campaign. The tremendous support and solidarity from the thousands of people like you around the country - and the world- who took the time to send messages to Bank of America and who rallied at banks across the country was crucial in winning this victory.



This is truly an historic victory for workers in the United States.



But this struggle is just the beginning! As the economic crisis deepens we need to launch a working class fight back. Rallies for a "People's Bailout" will continue today and throughout the rest of the week.



Click here to find an action near you (updated daily)http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/ip_xDw71scFi/. You can also takeaction online:
Tell Congress: We Demand a People's Bailout:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/peoplesbailout/wukd7sdrv7t8je5w?
Save Autoworker Jobs: http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/autoworkers/wukd7sdrv7t8je5w?
VOTE NOW for Grinch of the Year:
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/k7_xDw71scFo/
Thanks again for all that you do! You can see photos, video, and press clips from the Week of Action here:
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/k1_xDw71scFk/