Republic Window workers occupation—everyone’s victory!

By Sharon Black
Chicago

There are not enough adjectives to express the kind of gratitude due the courageous workers of the Chicago Republic Window and Doors factory.

They have lit a torch to show the way in the midst of a growing economic crisis. History may well distinguish their action as the first significant one in a growing battle that must and will take place between capital and labor.

The majority of the factory’s workers are immigrant workers from South and Central America who have perhaps the most to lose. Like many other low-paid workers, they live paycheck to paycheck. But unlike U.S.-born workers, they bear the brunt of possible deportation, and all of the workers, both foreign and U.S. born, who are Latina/o and Black, face a daily battle against racism.

It is with a double sense of gratitude that workers everywhere must give thanks once again to immigrant workers and their community. Like the historic protests and boycotts that swept the country on May Day 2006—which revived this historic workers’ holiday—today’s victory for these workers is a victory for all.

If there were one big lesson to learn from this struggle it would be the importance of solidarity. The contribution made by the Republic Window workers to all of the working class is the strongest argument that can be made against anti-immigrant division and violence.

Occupation: A long overdue tactic

The occupation and sit-in of factories and workplaces is not a brand-new tactic. For those familiar with labor history—it was the militant sit-ins and occupations of the auto plants in the 1930s that began a wave all across the country of organizing industrial workers without special skills. It was such a popular tactic that songs were written about it.

This tactic hasn’t been employed, especially by the official labor movement, for a long period in the U.S. despite many efforts to explain its usefulness.

In the 1986 book “High Tech, Low Pay,” in the section on “Offensive Strategies: Workers Control,” its author, Sam Marcy, explains: “There are means by which the workers can go beyond the established capital-labor relationship that is the framework of capitalist exploitation. They can seize and occupy the plants and thereby force a new and different type of crisis on the ruling class, instead of remaining in a narrow, often frustrating endurance contest between the employers and the workers.”

Every community organizer, student or trade unionist should apply this tactic and agitate for it in a popular and bold way. If your home is being foreclosed stay—don’t leave. If your plant closes—then sit in. Why should workers or the community not claim what is rightfully theirs?

Prenotification & a ‘Job is a Right’

The Republic Windows workers’ struggle also raises a very important concept that needs to be energetically and forcefully fought for on a broad basis both by the community at large and the union movement—that is for “prenotification.”

The federal Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act (WARN) calls for 60-days’ notice or severance pay, from employers who hire more than 100 workers, in the event of a layoff or job closing. This is inadequate—even though bosses frequently violate WARN without consequences. In addition, it does not cover workplaces where the company files for bankruptcy. In the case of the Republic Windows and Doors, it took a daring struggle to win what would have been otherwise lost in a long legal tangle.

Serious prenotification means six months’ notice. Only with such a time frame can there be the necessary time to organize a fightback to prevent the closing. This is also true regarding the demand for a moratorium on home foreclosures, for example.

What the Republic Windows workers showed in practice and made public at press conferences was that their occupation was in defense of preserving their assets. During the period that they stayed, the company could not remove the equipment. In essence, they preserved their property right to a job.

This concept, that workers have a right to their job as strong as any other property right, must be deepened and popularized in every worker’s mind during this period when layoffs are sweeping the country.

The United Electrical Workers were able to broaden and politicize this battle by generating a popular campaign against Bank of America. BofA had cut off the Republic factory’s line of credit despite the infusion of $25 billion of taxpayer money for BofA as part of Congress’ bailout of the financial sector. Targeting BofA was a well-crafted strategy that was gathering national attention and sympathy, including calls by Chicago aldermen and the Cook County Council to divest their funds from BofA.

Role of the state

Police held back from ejecting or arresting the Republic workers, whose struggle very quickly became a popular symbol of the fight against the big banks. It would have been politically embarrassing for President-elect Barack Obama, if in his home state police beat and arrested a relatively small group of workers who were defying this bank. Obama instead did something unprecedented in decades for a U.S. president by making a statement in support of the workers. The workers and the union were able to utilize this statement to push their struggle forward.

The forces of reaction were also steadily at work. Illinois Gov. Robert Blagojevich was detained on a pending corruption charge immediately following his announcement that the state would withdraw its funds from BofA. Some reports mentioned Obama, whose Senate seat was under discussion by Blagojevich. The timing cannot be viewed as a mere coincidence.

This was not only aimed at the workers occupying a tiny plant in the heart of Chicago—it was also that Obama himself “shouldn’t give concessions” to the workers. In the final analysis the corporate masters pulling the strings were concerned with the larger issues of GM and the specter that autoworkers and others may rebel too.

Corruption among politicians is nothing new in Chicago. In addition, the charges and rumors against the Service Employees International Union related to this case are equally absurd. Even commentators in the corporate media admit that the allegations make very little sense.

The fact that a union leader on a high level would set up a meeting with a politician is nothing new. It is common knowledge that many union campaigns by state workers and others have been brokered in this way—none of this is illegal. The problem doesn’t lie with illegality—the problem is that in most cases these strategies do not strengthen the working-class movement and generally tend to leave the workers passive and unarmed for future battles.

Solidarity & the union movement

In Chicago itself, solidarity was exemplary. Workers from both the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win unions provided help. On Dec. 10, some 1,000 union members, along with the progressive movement, marched outside of Bank of America’s downtown offices. Messages and supporters were beginning to flow in from outside of Chicago and from around the world.

What was unfortunate was the relative silence of the top leadership of both labor confederations when they should have immediately expressed unconditional solidarity. Such a statement of solidarity would have strengthened the entire union movement and sent a strong message to corporate boardrooms everywhere that labor will stand together.

The union movement should take a special lesson from how UE conducted this struggle. First and foremost, the rank-and-file workers were prepared, informed and ultimately made the decisions on what was fundamentally important for them. This was crucial in forging a victory.

One especially important observation is that the Republic workers proved they can carry out their tasks without the bosses and do it well. This was clear to anyone on the ground watching events unfold. The workers guarded the plant, organized food, kept order, cleaned the floors, and they could easily manage production. Workers don’t need the bosses at all.

---