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Angry laid-off workers occupy factory in Chicago
AP/Yahoo! ^ | 12/6/08 | Phoenix11

Posted on 12/06/2008 9:09:42 AM PST by Phoenix11

CHICAGO (AP) -- Workers laid off from their jobs at a Chicago factory have occupied the building and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.

(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: chicago; layoffs; manufacturing
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To: We Dare Defend Our Rights

No they’ve there before — but today they are sober.


41 posted on 12/06/2008 9:53:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
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To: Phoenix11

This calls for obammy’s civilian defense corps.


42 posted on 12/06/2008 9:57:02 AM PST by dbacks (God help the USA.)
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To: cpanter

It seems they do not understand the concept of being broke. After this is in the news who would even want to risk ordering product from this company?


43 posted on 12/06/2008 9:58:27 AM PST by Shanty Shaker
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To: Phoenix11

A chicken in every pot, a car in every garage.

44 posted on 12/06/2008 10:01:07 AM PST by VRWC For Truth (Throw the bums out who vote yes on the bail out)
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To: John123
Well, how 'bout them Dems who created this whole housing debacle in the first place?

How 'bout them Dems...yeh they mostly caused this mess but their allied lying pals in the MSM keep the sheeple fed on a daily diet of BDS and blame the GOP for all the ills of the economy. Silver lining is now that the 'Rats rule everything they can 'deservedly' get the blame when the honeymoon is over with the blinded sheeple. Feces...meet fan...thy name is Dem.

45 posted on 12/06/2008 10:01:41 AM PST by tflabo (:)
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To: An Old Man
from your link... MacArthur's own General Staff intelligence division reported in June that only three of the twenty-six leaders of the Bonus March were communists.

It only takes one cock roach to spoil a big bowl of soup. Besides, the mob got violent. They deserved to have the Army sent in.

46 posted on 12/06/2008 10:13:13 AM PST by DogBarkTree (Sometimes you have to let it go in order to get a Grip.)
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To: oh8eleven
Sorry, I don't like unions at all, but I'm with them on this one. Federal law requires a company to give 60 days notice prior to a layoff when the number of employees impacted is 100 or more.

Having been screwed by two of 'em, I'm no friend of unions either, but I am with you on this one. Rules are rules, dammit, and all too often the companies get away with disregarding them.

There seems to be a widespread knee-jerk reaction on this board that as soon as unions are mentioned, blind union-bashing occurs.

To those folks, read the first paragraph again - "demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed." That's not an unjust demand, especially in these days when the worker gets the pnk slip and management gets the Golden Parachute. The fact that the company reneged on the 60-day notice has established a track record of not following through on obligations and therefore every other agreement is up for grabs. If you were one of those workers, wouldn't you be concerned?

47 posted on 12/06/2008 10:33:49 AM PST by Oatka ("A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves." –Bertrand de Jouvenel)
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To: Phoenix11

Chicago? They’re in luck! I’m sure Osama and his wife can give them household work to do.


48 posted on 12/06/2008 10:50:31 AM PST by VeniVidiVici (All hail the Obamasiah! Kneel before Obamohammad!)
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To: Phoenix11
Probably one of the many window companies that was trying to survive off of the mom and pop lumber yards which are going out of business left and right in the north. In the window business if you don't have volume you'll probably be out of business soon. The business probably ran out of cash, didn't have any sales and probably couldn't get any glass delivered anymore because of the cash flow. If you don't have any window sales, no glass, or vinyle to make windows your up the s### creek. They probably got rid of everyone except for half a dozen people(management)which will get laid off 90 days from now, when they shut the plant totally down.
49 posted on 12/06/2008 10:53:03 AM PST by ReformedBeckite
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To: DogBarkTree
You have the right to your opinion too.

Quoting from the same link an a point one paragraph above where you extracted your quote:

"From the start, 1932 promised to be a difficult year for the country, as the Depression deepened and frustrations mounted. In December of 1931, there was a small, communist-led hunger march on Washington; a few weeks later, a Pittsburgh priest led an army of 12,000 jobless men there to agitate for unemployment legislation. In March, a riot at Ford's River Rouge plant in Michigan left four dead and over fifty wounded. Thus, when a band of jobless veterans, led by a former cannery worker named Walter W. Walters, began arriving in the capital in May, tensions were high. Calling themselves the "Bonus Expeditionary Forces," they demanded early payment of a bonus Congress had promised them for their service in World War I. "

Soon you will hear more and more about Riots, Marches and all manner of Civil Disobedience, just as it was at the start of the last Great Depression.

Be very careful how you categorize people, for while you are doing it to one group of people unfortunate enough to get caught up in what they did not cause, someone else may be putting you in a box of their choosing.

What needs to be avoided is for that some else to be the leader of the goons, for as history tells us, the goons nearly always win at the skirmish level.

50 posted on 12/06/2008 10:55:31 AM PST by An Old Man (Lead, Follow, or get the hell out of the way)
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To: JoanneSD
he needs to do some community organizing, or at least out reaching

Probably didn't want to reach out to these workers too much, might get cut from the glass.

51 posted on 12/06/2008 10:58:57 AM PST by ReformedBeckite
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To: An Old Man

What you seem to overlook as that the goons of today are union thugs so Im encouraged by what you say that they will only win on the skirmish level. The unions did this to themselves. No sympathy for them from me.


52 posted on 12/06/2008 12:05:47 PM PST by DogBarkTree (Sometimes you have to let it go in order to get a Grip.)
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To: DogBarkTree
Your game of semantics reminded me of this;

An early supporter of Hitler, by 1934 Pastor Martin Niemöller had come to oppose the Nazis, and it was largely his high connections to influential and wealthy businessmen that saved him until 1937, after which he was imprisoned, eventually at Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps. He survived to be a leading voice of penance and reconciliation for the German people after World War II. His poem is well-known, frequently quoted, and is a popular model for describing the dangers of political apathy, as it often begins with specific and targeted fear and hatred which soon escalates out of control.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Weather we like it or not, these people are our fellow countrymen and deserve the same courtesy and security that we would have. Follow the Law, not the crowd, for just as Hitlers Nazi Socialism turned to his detractors, Obamas socialism may turn to you.

53 posted on 12/06/2008 12:28:47 PM PST by An Old Man (Lead, Follow, or get the hell out of the way)
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To: Oatka; All

This is where the fallacy of the 60-day notice law, and a half-told story come together.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

“Republic Windows & Doors, once an emblem of corporate expansion on Goose Island, said it must shut down Friday because of inability to get financing.

It said more than 200 jobs will be eliminated. Amy Zimmerman, vice president of sales and marketing at Republic, said the shutdown was forced by Bank of America Corp., which withdrew a credit line because of the manufacturer’s declining sales.”

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1313535,CST-FIN-republic04.article

They CANNOT pay 60 days of wages because THEY HAVE NO CASH, NO CREDIT LINE.

The employees will have to wait in the bankruptcy court line, like all the other unsecured creditors.

You can’t squeeze blood from a turnip, folks. And the Union was intransigent, instead of trying to work with the company.


54 posted on 12/06/2008 12:32:28 PM PST by tcrlaf (You Voted DEMOCRAT-You'll Look GREAT In A Burqa!)
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To: tcrlaf

Also to note, this has been going on for a couple of years now, as the company is under new ownership after “Severe mismanagement by the former owners.

And this quote from the sun-times is TELLING:

“Union leaders also said Bank of America was barring Republic from paying workers for the 60-day period or for accrued vacations. “It’s shameless that this bank, after getting a federal bailout, is throwing them out penniless,” said union organizer Leah Fried.”


55 posted on 12/06/2008 12:34:49 PM PST by tcrlaf (You Voted DEMOCRAT-You'll Look GREAT In A Burqa!)
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To: tcrlaf
"The employees will have to wait in the bankruptcy court line, like all the other unsecured creditors."

There is a ray of hope shining from this cloud of doom!

The employees will be placed near the head of the line for payment in full of what is owed them.

The order of payment is;

  1. The bankruptcy trustee

  2. The Lawyers

  3. The employees holding valid claims for wages

They are probably going to miss out on the severance pay though unless it was incorporated into the latest bankruptcy law.

Next everyone else gets in line in the order in which they file their claims.

56 posted on 12/06/2008 12:49:57 PM PST by An Old Man (Lead, Follow, or get the hell out of the way)
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To: norraad
Well, perhaps, but when I saw one being interviewed he made a good comment, that is, he was not allowed in on the decision making process that drove the biz. into the ground and he was a good hard working member of the ship that sank because of Capt. Bligh , etc..

If he wanted a say in how the business was run, he should have bought stock in the company. If he wants a say in how his next workplace is run, he should start his own business.

Then we'll see how much worth his say in how the business is to be run is worth when he makes himself rich. Or not.

Right now all he is doing is whining.

57 posted on 12/06/2008 1:00:15 PM PST by Cheburashka (Democratic Underground: where PCP is not just for breakfast anymore.)
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To: Phoenix11

58 posted on 12/06/2008 7:09:22 PM PST by traumer
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To: tcrlaf
Banks are looking at the FUTURE of companies based on their current numbers and deciding whether to lend. I'm not sure if that's completely right. I have a friend with a medium size business in CA. He has NEVER missed a payment on both his business and home. He is now being told he must come up with a large chunk of money because his business, of course like everyone else, is down something like 30-40% this year and they want to recoup whatever they can get now before, the assume, he goes out of business.

It's insane out there, folks. There has got to be a better way.

59 posted on 12/08/2008 8:22:41 AM PST by Hildy
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