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TechnoratiAngry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
CHICAGO - Workers who got three days' notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay.
![[Mario Neria stands in the doorway at the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008 in Chicago. Workers laid off from their jobs at the factory have occupied the building since Friday and are demanding assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay that they say they are owed.(AP Photo/Brian Kersey)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/1207-00.jpg "1207-00.jpg")
About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.
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.
During the two-day peaceful takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.
"We're doing something we haven't done since the 1930s, so we're trying to make it work," she said, referring to a tactic most famously used in 1936-37 by General Motors factory workers in Flint, Mich., to help unionize the U.S. auto industry.
Fried said the company can't pay its 300 employees because its creditor, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America, won't let them. Crain's Chicago Business reported that Republic Windows' monthly sales had fallen to $2.9 million from $4 million during the past month. In a memo to the union, obtained by the business journal, Republic CEO Rich Gillman said the company had "no choice but to shut our doors."
Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.
"Across cultures, religions, union and nonunion, we all say this bailout was a shame," said Richard Berg, president of Teamsters Local 743. "If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."
Outside the plant, protesters wore stickers and carried signs that said, "You got bailed out, we got sold out."
The Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a civil rights group, announced in a news release Saturday that Jesse Jackson planned to visit the workers Sunday morning to offer his support.
Larry Spivack, regional director for American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, said the peaceful action will add to Chicago's rich history in the labor movement, which includes the 1886 Haymarket affair, when Chicago laborers and anarchists gathering in a square on the city's west side drew national attention after an unidentified person threw a bomb at police.
"The history of workers is built on issues like this here today," Spivack said.
Representatives of Republic Windows did not immediately respond Saturday to calls and e-mails seeking comment.
Police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak said authorities were aware of the situation and officers were patrolling the area.
Workers 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, Fried said. Union officials said another meeting with the company is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
"We're going to stay here until we win justice," said Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, after occupying the building for several hours. Speaking in Spanish, Funes said she fears losing her home without the wages she feels she's owed. A 13-year employee of Republic, she estimated her family can make do for three months without her paycheck. Most of the factory's workers are Hispanic.
99 Comments so far
Show AllHere is a short commentary on the recent stampeding of an employee at
Wal-Mart that gives a deeper insight to what is happening today:
http://www.guyfinley.com/Wisdom_Tree/Audio_Clips/Listen/3354/?q=Wal-
Mart&x=6&y=9
Or
http://www.guyfinley.com/GFaudio/20081205_commentary_walmart.mp3
Dear Factory Workers,
Until and if you can afford to buy at least 7 Representatives and 2 Senators you will remain on the 'not important list'.
Viva La Revolucion! Comrades. (must be them darn community organizers, again).
So what do you "progressives" think a company that is losing money do? And what the heck are the United Electrical Workers doing protesting at a window manufacturing plant?
Don't get me wrong here I am a carpenter in California who is struggling to find work. If I don't work there is nothing to put windows into so the government money should first go to builders so there will be someplace to install windows. If the money goes to the window manufacturers first they will just have a bunch of windows with no place to install them, where is the logic in that?
Why didn't the unions come out strongly against illegal immigration during the last ten years? The huge influx of illegals has driven construction wages down to the same level they were 20 years ago.
well--- the funny thing abotu mentioning Illegal aliens who 'drive down the prices" so that businesses can't compete properly due to the bottom line -- is that americans who speak THIS kind of rhetoric NEVER seem to go FARTHER BACK to the ROOT CAUSES of illegal aliens that travel over the lands from south american primarily , for GEOGRAPHIC REASONS ...and that is because of the BUSINESSES OF AMERICA, backed up by the US government and military
INTERFERING with the domestic policies of countries, especially in south america -from where many of the "construction industry" workers come illegally --
because THEIR economies and livelihoods and means of earning have been DESTROYED by american BUSINESSES .
it is one thing to talk about "illegal aliens" being the CAUSE or primary cause of such "loss of profits" due to pushing down the wages and profit bottom lines of US companies, it is ANOTHER to say so -- and at least ACKNOWLEDGE the REAL ROOT of it all -- ti STARTED IN THE UNITED STATES of america!
americans who complain about the "waves" of illegal immigrants looking for ways to feed themselves and their families as THEIR livelihoods and economies were DESTROYED by AMERICANS through their OWN "US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE" policies --
have NO BUSINESS complaining when the CONSEQUENCES of their own government's and Business and finance policies COME BACK TO HAUNT THEM - right in the heart of where it all BEGAN!!
americans do NOT have the moral rights , ethical , or even , in strict INTERNATIONAL TERMS of justice and truth and legalities and laws - to complain about Illegal workers or residents in the USA for "taking away jobs and pushing the market prices down" that result in loss of business or lowered wages for others -- when it is THEIR own country that has ROBBED the people of other countries from whom "illegal immigrants come" of THEIR own livelihoods and economic prosperities!
you are only getting the results of what the USA ITSELF has PLANTED as SEEDS and CULTIVATED abroad.
this is the old saying:
the CHICKEN COMES HOME TO ROOST! and americans who are experiencing THIS are only getting a TASTE, a MERE TASTE - of what their own country has DONE TO OTHERS!
as an american poet said:
"we AMERICANS.....WE CAREFULLY NURTURE AN ATTITUDE OF DETACHED INDIFFERENCE TO THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS......EVEN IF WE ARE THE CAUSE OF IT".
U KNOW - months ago -- i happened to have a long chat with a very old person -- a very dignified old italian - who is VERY healthy still, very clear minded, with an unbelievable recall of events -- from nearly 100 years ago -- because he is about 104 years old. and READS newspapers from all over the place.
he was a nautical engineer and had a good life. and HE related to me how fascism arose in europe and explained how CAPITALISM LED to it. and he gave a very succinct summary of relations between countries, such as that around "illegal immigration" .
he told me, in essence:
"IN italy -- we were WRONG with our imperial projects....in europe, that is what we did. it was wrong because THOSE policies EXPLOITED the other countries because they were weaker and we wanted their resources CHEAP and their labor CHEAP - and we did not want to PAY for it for real....as a CONSEQUENCE -- because we exploited them and destroyed their economies and suppressed them -- we find them in OUR shores...where ELSE were they going to go? right to the places that were TAKING their resources and ruled over them...that is what happened in ANCIENT ROME's Empire...and I am a modern day roman, and i understand these things....you can not go abroad ruling over other people , and exploiting them for their resources and their labor and denying them their chance to become PROSPEROUS like YOU ...and what WE have done which was wrong was to USE THEM for OUR benefit RATHER than HELP THEM ....so THAT THEY WILL STAY where they are because they find NO NEED to feed themselves out of DESPERATION so that they END UP in OUR shores......what is happening now to the United States and the western world and the illegal immigrations from Africa, south american, etc....
is what happened before...even as far back as Imperial Rome..and this is wrong".
that was the view of someone over 100 years old that had traveled the world, build a good life, seen how states become fascists, what capitalism does and how it leads to colonizations and exploitation and "do as we say" policies, and the CONSEQUENCES of those policies.
You are an imbecile confusing fascism with liberalism
first of all -- before that question is asked "what do you propose a company that loses money DO?"
comes an even more important and fundamental question:
WHAT should a STATE like Illinois DO with the BANK OF AMERICA that stopped the company's line of credit (which all businesses use to continue their day to day activities, including holding workers and paying salaries) - DO?
the short answer:
the state of illinois has THREATENED the BANKERS to RESTORE the line of credit to the company.
it is NOT so much that company is "losing business" but that it does not have the liquidity because the bank closed its account.
now -- the question arises -- WHAT IS THE REASON for a bank's CONTINUED EXISTENCE and being among those that are LINING UP to be saved by the PUBLIC SYSTEM of which WORKERS , like in ILLINOIS , are part of propping up that system in ORDER TO KEEP BUSINESS OPEN through their having LINES OF CREDIT from banks like bank of america that ITSELF is running to PUBLIC TROUGHS (that is- the same region where workers EXIST)
if THAT bank refuses to extend a line of credit for which IT is CHARTERED by the government, by the PUBLIC to do business?
if banks are NOT going to be part of the "solution" such as extending a line of credit to allow the company to pay its obligations BECAUSE BANKS - LIKE bank of america MISMANAGED their own investment affairs -- that is the problem of banks -- and if they will or can not do their obligations AS banks - they ought to be DISMANTLED ENTIRELY and their operations taken over by the STATE! to disburse what companies in distress need - so that the workers can go to their jobs and EARN and HELP the company survive!
this is coming down to the BOIL -- BANKS , however they appeared since 400 hundred years ago as the PARASITES that they really are --
need to be EXPOSED for it...and if they are NOT the good managers of "money" that their social and economic class claims -- they ought to be DISMEMBERED entirely and let the exchange of credits and ious and wages and profits be among businesses and workers and consumers ONLY -- and if banks want IN on the piece of pie - only be allowed to make profit as NOTHING MORE THAN SERVICE providers of exchanges of bills and notes and credits, RATHER than "financiers".
banks that do not extend lines of credit to businesses - are USELESS. and shouldn't be permitted to exist. and if they exist they should be permitted to do ONLY ONE JOB< apart from holding savings of people and correctly investing them...but NOT LENDING them anywhere as "line of credit" which they REFUSE to do so ANYWAY ....
and they should only be allowed to do business as FACILITATORS of exchanges of lines of credit and loans and trade BETWEEN businesses. PERIOD!
"they ought to be DISMANTLED ENTIRELY and their operations taken over by the STATE!"
Wow, good to know that socialists came up with fresh ideas for the XXI century.........NOT
"Why didn't the unions come out strongly against illegal immigration during the last ten years? The huge influx of illegals has driven construction wages down to the same level they were 20 years ago."
The quick answer is that they seem to be fighting a losing battle with other business organizations (such as the Chamber of Commerce) and the powers that be in Washington. Another thing is that is difficult to look at the issue objectively, and look at the impact on communities (with respect to jobs, wages, and social services). The battle cry is "they do the jobs nobody else wants," but forget to put in, "at a low wage that most cannot afford to work for.." Proponents of illegal immigration say these immigrants contribute more to the community then they extract (though others challenge this assertion, partly because a big chunk of their income is sent to their country of origin and not spent in the local economy as it might otherwise be, and partly because they do not pay state and other local income taxes). Many say that they are economically oppressed in their own country, so that we should invite them in unabated--just open the flood gates, if you will. Unfortunately, like the rest of us, they are merely pawns in a bigger profit game.
Over several years now, jobs here have been getting the one-two punch. Many that have had better paying jobs have been forced to accept lower-paying ones (due largely to outsourcing), so technically they were not in the unemployment lines. Nevertheless, many of these same workers have used credit to keep their heads above water, until they failed to make the minimum payments and went under (for many is was runaway mortgage increases that delivered the final blow). Really, the pressure has been to accept a lower standard of living with essentially no savings, which is partially what this race to the bottom is all about.
Ironically, illegals will themselves have difficulty finding work as desperate citizens increasingly enter the ranks of the unemployed. The outcome is not likely to be pretty. Adding further to the desperation is the fact that (because of the reasons mentioned above) few have been able to save for a rainy day, so that they are one paycheck away from financial disaster.
Chessgame is correct.
this is a grand game played by the capitalists in its simplest terms. but more precisely -- that part of the capitalist class that resides IN the banking, finance sector in which even entire industries are THEMSELVES mere pawns (not to mention the workers and the ensuing battles BETWEEN business management and workers concerning all their respective interests between Profit and 'benefits and wages').
but the main point that some still seem to miss or gloss over is:
this is the result of US POLICIES of economics of CLASS WAR all along. which for generations has largely been "out of sight out of mind" for MOSt americans so long as disastrous results like THESE in illinois are "contained" within the sphere of a "union" (as the "ever greedy" partner -- so do away with unions) -- which has a WEAK presence in america anyway. and THEREFORE considers FOREIGN labor, IN the USA or OUTSIDE as a "competitor" to ITS own limited power WITHIN the USA in relation to businesses (and BEHIND THEM - the finance and banking industries).
but in reality -- this is the RESULT of capitalism which wil ALWAYS seek to DRIVE DOWN the COST OF LABOR - and with that REMOVE from the majority of people THEIR power to DICTATE in a FAIR exchange between "management/controller of means of production and distribution" class - AND labor which is the TRUE creator of the accumulated wealth from which "capital" is actually derived.
but since the USA is SO DEEP within its own capitalist structure -- it is TRAPPED in trying to "fix" relations that are UNFIXABLE so long as they operate and are forced to function WITHIN a capitalist system which is INHERENTLY unjust and exploitative of labor.
and what are HUMAN BEINGS - unless they use their strength and labor to produce wealth?
and what are the FINANCE CLASS - who are UNPRODUCTIVE - if not the "rulers" who have merely HIJACKED that position of control MERELY by calling themselves the arbiters of "value"?
they are actually PARASITES - banks and the 'finance' , capitalist class.
but since americans can NOT see THROUGH THAT....since it was designed 400 hundred years ago from adam smith's and other's accumulated "theories" of how social order ought to be institutionalized and legalized and "protected" by "government".......
how can americans even BEGIN to understand that, if one were to talk about Illegal immigrants taking away jobs and forcing down wages and prices , are only a CONSEQUENCE of the DOGMA that AMERICA ITSELF HAS IMPOSED upon others?.
you can not throw a stone into the lake and expect that the waves will only move AWAY from YOU. but that is what the USA in its "capitalist" policies -- allowing "free movement of capital BUT NOT people and labor in EQUAL terms" in order to protect the power of capital OVER labor -- has DONE.
and it is probably likely that this will be USED by the capitalist class to apply EVEN MORE DOWNWARD pressure on wages and rights of workers, be they american citizens or not. americans ought NOT to SEE foreigners or illegal immigrants as "enemies" -- but actually as the SAME as THEMSELVES --
the PAWNS of the capitalist class!!
Buddy I hate to give you the bad news but marxism is dead and if I were you I wouldnt keep talking about "capitalist class and class struggle" unless you want to look like a socialist moron.
Are you a member of a Union?If you are you must realize that when other Union memebers show solidarity for fellow workers that is the backbone of the Union movement.You may be right about wages being driven down by immigrant workers ,but answer this question for me,who hired them?Workers or owners?There were a few times that I have walked a picket line to show support for brothers and sisters just to bolster their spirits.From the tone of your letter apparently that never crossed your mind.If you can't show sympathy for another worker in need,don't expect any for yourself.
Good points, bob. I was thinking of how the reps used "Joe the Plumber," to make workers think that they were on their side. Ha! If we fight with those we should be in solidarity with (i.e., who authentically represents or share their interests), what chance will we have of getting a fair shake?
Does anyone think this sit-in was NOT made possible by Obama's election? Obama is from Chicago, he is the most powerful man in the world now, people can feel a new era, the shackles of fascism are loosening and now unafraid people are acting-only a year ago, two, when that murderer bush was powerful, this would NOT have happened. And it would not be happening now if we were transitioning from bush to mccain.
So EVERY vote for Obama HELPED those workers. That came fast. Don't change that channel either.
The Bank of America lent huge sums to South Africa during apartheid.
The Bank of America just 'assimilated' Countrywide.
The B of A tried to steal from me.
Raytheon got mentioned twice. They are the world's leading making of cluster bombs!
pre-coffee post, mixed two articles, please forgive the cluster.
I hope this is the start of something much bigger in the US, but it won't be covered much in the MSM.
YUP!
The "strike" or "sit in" is getting good media coverage. Here is the Chicago Sun Times article which is promising.
Are people waking up and realizing the power they have. It is easy to demonize college students as "arnachist" or whatever but the US still respects workers and the banks are not on many Americans Xmas list.
Could this be the beginning of something? We need to do something big next spring to show solidarity and take to the streets en masse. I know there is alot of anger and doomsday scenarios out there but we will get more done by being more positive and pro-active.
I think you will find that those who complain the most are the those who also do the least. You just can't complain and do at the same time.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1318766,barack-obama-republic-window-doors-120708.article
BY ABDON PALLASCH Sun-Times Political Reporter
President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
“Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,’’ he said. “Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
“That’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s going to be the central focus of my administration.”
Although this is a peaceful protest up to this part and these people have every right to demand what is due to them,this is VERY SCARY. People are being let go left and right every day thousands upon thousands. If something is not done soon and I can't even begin to suggest what, these things may well turn violent.We have a real mess on our hands and, it is escalating rapidly. You can't take a family's lively hood away with no notice and expect anything more. People are frustrated and scared and will react as such. Not enough credit has been given this past year to the high cost of fuel and the serious damage it did to our businesses, families and our society. While we do the happy dance at the pumps OPEC is planning more production cuts to jack prices back up. WE have never recovered from this past year and can't take another yr like it. Jeff Wilson has a great book out called The Manhattan Project of 2009 Energy Independence NOW. I don't understand why our nation doesn't take some of these billions in stimulus pkgs and get some alternative energy projects up and running, create new green collar jobs and promote energy independence.
The whole thing makes me sick! Bank of America should be deprived of the ill gotten gains that it's recently acquired from the tax payers--some of whom "it is not responsible for". The arrogance of the American corporate system just astounds me.
UE is a great union and the Republic workers must have made the decision themselves to sit-in at the plant. I am very proud of the Republic workers and their union, UE, for taking on the BoA and Republic and for standing up to so-called authority. UE has great leadership in Chicago and Pittsburgh. We are behind you Leah Fried, Carl Rosen and Bob Kingsley. We are behind you Republic workers.
Don't you feel it's time (maybe past time) for us to revive concepts such as worker solidarity, and that those of us not in unions should organize? White collared, salaried workers who are not part of the ownership class (so, most of them) have been deprived of the right to organize as part of the salary game. But they can walk a line as well as anyone, and it's time they realize that it IS class warfare, and the side they thought they were on just sold them out utterly and completely. Wage slaves and salary slaves, it's time to ORGANIZE. Time to ACT, or many more billions of our tax dollars will be looted.
Fast Eddie in Seattle
The reason banking and finance gets a bailout rather than being nationalized is Wall Street doen't want the rest of us to find out just how large its slice of the 700 billion dollar, here one day, gone the next bailout. Instead Wall Street perpetrates the myth that the efficiency of the marketplace protects our money and benefits us. Perhaps that's true for manufacturing pins and buttons but not when it comes to vital public services such as health care, education and now banking. One can only guess how much the wheelers and dealers in banking and finance skim off the top for their salaries, bonuses and such, but based on the at least 30 cents on the dollar that goes for overhead and profit in privatized health care, the almost instant disappearance of the 700 billion bailout money should come as no surprise. What's the answer? Public ownership of banking and finance, that's what.
Sioux Rose
YOURS TRULY: Excellent points. It dawned on me that many unbelievably one-sided (to favor big money) precedents are being set. Insurance companies ROUTINELY deny "claims" when people require treatment, and this is considered a viable "business strategy." The EPA doesn't enforce laws that protect citizens and took GREAT effort to get into place. Companies fire people so they can hire them as "temps" and thus get around health-care and other benefits. Big industries poorly managed demand bailouts that the workers are ultimately footing the bill for via their tax obligation.
I could see insurance companies tell home owners there is no money in the pot, "Sorry, you're shit out of luck," when the next set of global warming weather calamities hit.
It's come down to a complete eradication of INTEGRITY. There IS no contract. It used to be that when you paid for insurance, or signed a contract for a job, the clauses actually MEANT SOMETHING. I have no faith that the FDIC has the $ to insure the bank deposits, and no faith that the insurance companies WILL deliver when they are technically obligated to do so. The laws have been bent to favor the captains of industry and clearly, like something out of a revived 21st century Dickens novel, the rest of us be damned. It's as if Scrooge returned as THE corporation and left behind his memory of the lessons imparted by the ghosts of Christmas.
This story was published in today's Seattle Times, so I fired off this letter to the editors:
Editors, The Seattle Times:
America has customary, unquestioned heroes. These are the soldiers, police officers, firefighters, and other emergency responders who, as part of their job descriptions, knowingly risk their lives for the benefit of others. They are heroes by definition. Then, there are accidental heroes: those who, through the demands of sudden circumstance, instinctively react to save a life or thwart a crime. They often say, "I didn't think. I just acted." And sometimes, There are heroes who act because they have nothing to lose--there is but one, albeit frightening option to take, and courage compels them.
I'm writing to nominate some new heroes--economic heroes--acting because they are being screwed and they have nothing to lose. These are the employees of the Republic Windows and Doors company in Chicago ("Laid-off workers won't leave factory," Nation Report, 12/7/08). These workers were given three day's notice that their plant was closing and their jobs were lost (the law requires 60 days notice). Furthermore, their compensation, including accrued vacation and severance pay, has been frozen, so they don't know if they will receive what they've rightfully earned. In response, the workers have occupied their factory, vowing to stay until they are fairly compensated. (During shifts of occupation, the workers are cleaning and maintaining the facility, showing pride in their cause.)
Why are they heroes? Because they are sudden victims of a massive disaster, they are standing up for justice against an overpowering adversary, and they have nothing to lose. If we, the people (and you, the media), thrust them forward (and they seem to be willing), they will lead us all to an accounting of the $700 billion bank bailout several months ago.
The matter is simple. The Bank of America (B of A), which received $25 billion in "bailout" money to protect "we the people" from immediate global economic collapse, is the very entity refusing to compensate the workers. B of A has frozen the payroll loans needed by Republic Windows to pay the workers. In sum, B of A has taken public money--our tax dollars--and now refuses to pay wages and compensation to some of the very workers who funded the bailout! We need to know why. We demand to know why!
I beg you, the media and its readers (listeners, viewers), to make these workers the focal point for a comprehensive investigation into what has happened to the bailout money. Talk about it. Write about it. Protest about it. I propose that we, the people, occupy the Republic Windows plant (or better yet, a major B of A property) until we get satisfaction. This is a $700 billion dollar cause on behalf of America, and every cause needs heroes. I nominate the "Republic Windows 300" to represent the Bailout Accountability Campaign.
Detroit: you're next.
Fast Eddie in Seattle
I would argue with this statement: "they are sudden victims of a massive disaster".
The article states that most of the workers are Hispanic. Isn't it ironic that the neocons allowed/induced Hispanics to enter America to bust unions, lower worker's wages and generally "do the jobs that Americans won't do", and now the Hispanics are the ones protesting for worker's rights?
They were not sudden victims, but unwitting (or uncaring) pawns in the race to the bottom.
The "suddeness" I was referring to was the three-days notice when sixty days are required by law. I agree that the race to the bottom has been a long time developing. I also believe that if we keep separating Hispanics from others, union members from non-union members, carpenters from window makers, white collar from blue collar, then the bastards who are driving us to the bottom win. If they haven't already.
Fast Eddie in Seattle
To quote Pogo (Walt Kelly): "We have met the enemy and he is us"
Argentina set us a good example. They not only occupied the factories, they took them over and began operating them at a profit and they told the banks to wait in line.
While the workers are waiting for the other shoe to drop they should start putting together a good 21st century business plan built around a worker ownership.
US workers have been at the mercy of irresponsible owners long enough.
Argentina put its economy on its feet in a hurry because workers were proactive. It's much better than waiting Congress to bite the hand that feeds it.
This isn't the the only bad B of A has done. When they took over Countrywide they left all the perps in place and allowed them to squeeze homeowners when their mandate was to help them.
Join a credit union.
See Naomi Klein's movie 'The Take'.
Re: Robber baron banks put the American economy at risk. :(
Bank of America (Like the Wells Fargo, CitiBank, JP Morgan-Chase crooks, et. al) prove to be real bastards. The US taxpayers dollars are used to pull these bastards out of their usurious 'robber barons' predator loans and they use the US taxpayers dollars to give their executives raises and bonuses as America continous to sink into the Jewish Wall Street Bankers muck.
I say, like the lawyers, take these SOB-bankers out behind the woodshed and shot them dead!
TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.
While not subscribing to the blatant anti-semitism of Mr. AZ Cowboy (and I am very anti-Zionist!) I completely agree with his solution. Except I would hang them from Wall Street lamp posts (if it has any) and televise it.
George from Tucson, AZ
.Thanks ,George, it is nice to know there are more than ignorami in Arizona...."jewish Wall Street bankers"indeed. How do we progress as a species with dumbshits like that still breeding?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
I was just talking to someone over the Thanksgiving Holiday who was arguing that unions were a drag on individual incentive and the kind of self-interest that motivated people to get ahead.
His face got all red and I think he might have used the word "bullshit" a couple of times.
I responded by telling him he had so internalized the ethos of the market mindset that he was blithely advocating a game of chicken in a doomed race to the bottom.
Ah, so nice to visit the old neighborhood. Must do so more often.
Anyway, this article makes explicitly clear what the importance of unions are as well as the proper role of self-interest in the work place--and everywhere else.
Of course the person I was speaking with will not likely read this article even if he sees it in the MSM.
tommytoons December 7th, 2008 2:47 pm
"These leaders do not realize people throughout the country are pissed off and pissed off people who's pocketbooks are being pulled tighter and tighter, will snap, and when they do, God help them!!!"
No, they don't! Our leaders are too insulated to realize just how angry the citizens of this country have become over the last few years. If they don't get a phone call or an angry letter from us they "assume" or continue to believe that we're just a bunch of dumb f**ks. Most of them will be in for a big surpise when the sh!t hits the fan and we all take to the streets of D.C. for answers to the "third-world" economic environment they've created in this country while they proceed to give themselves annual pay raises and CEOs pocket multi-millions every year as a reward for crippling the middle class in America. Meanwhile, many of us are losing our jobs and can no longer feed and shelter our children.
What they fail to acknowledge is that in 1929 people STILL believed in their government. That belief in a "government of, by and for the people" no longer exists; we've been screwed far too many times by our government representatives to give them the benefit of the doubt.
The gig is up!
Why should the rich bastards at Bank of America be granted 25 billion? And, then they choose NOT to lend to a struggling American company. The occupied factory should be immediately nationalized, along with all of the banks in receipt of bailout billions. Buyout, not bailout! The same should go for the auto industry, which must be retooled for greener vehicles, and factories slated for closure retooled for mass transit vehicles.
True - what would be a better use of our hundreds of billions of tax dollars?
Congratulations to those workers. May we all resist and fight like them.
Joe
Nationalization? Fine, wait until Obama gets in or you're handing these factories over to Bush/Repugs. Better yet, give each American an equal share of non-transferable stock in these companies We the People are buying.
"Better yet, give each American an equal share of non-transferable stock in these companies"
I don't want the stock. As far as I'm concerned the stock market can go broke. I'm better off when the stock market is down which frees more money for small business.
Rickster
It's all of a piece with the MEGA-CORPORATE BANKING HOUSES, a well-heeled, purposeful companionship indeed.
It's going to be the ride of our lives now; in the works for quite a while. The mystery is our new President-elect.
Maybe with the wake-up calls happening, the people -- my fellow citizens who work hard and love their Super Bowls and Nascar, will now make it their business to find out what has been going on for such a long, long time, and those of us trying to make ourselves heard will not be considered unpatriotic anymore.
THE 10 PRIMARY STOCKHOLDER OWNERS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE, a private conglomerate, to run our economy, signed into law [regretfully in almost an instant] by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Then came WWI and then a high-time of flappers and good times and runaway stock-market speculation and THE CRASH. Then WWII and a burgeoning economy and more wars and then runaway good times and stock-market speculation and big-buck bubbles ... and now? THE CRASH COMETH ... and we ain't seen nuthin' yet ...
THE ROTHSCHILDS – BANK OF LONDON,
controlling the Federal Reserve Bank of New York
THE ROTHSCHILDS – BANK OF BERLIN
THE LAZARD BROTHERS – PARIS
ISRAEL MOSES SEIFF – BANK OF ITALY
KUHN-LOEB COMPANY – BANK OF GERMANY
THE WARBURGS – BANK OF AMSTERDAM
THE WARBURGS – BANK OF HAMBURG
LEHMAN BROTHERS – NEW YORK going down/absorbed by NEXT ... GS of NY
GOLDMAN SACHS – NEW YORK
THE ROCKEFELLERS – J.P. MORGAN CHASE BANK OF NEW YORK
[BANK OF AMERICA now in Rockefeller conglomerate]
This is who tweaks and pulls the policy strings of any administration, and take a look at who will make up the new cabinet regarding the economy.
David Rockefeller thanks media folks for their collusion with his one world plans: "We are grateful to THE WASHINGTON POST, the NEW YORK TIMES, TIME Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings [THE BILDERBERG GROUP - check it out and see who has attended and who attends - annual secret meeting] and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the light of publicity during those years. But now the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supra-national sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries."
Rockefeller writes on page 405 of his memoirs: "Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
'Nuf said.
Give me control of the economics of a Country; and I care not who makes her laws” ………………………………… Amsel Rothschield
As America rises from the sleep of innocence
History will without doubt charge these Greedy Bankers for causing this country to degenerate into barbarism and savagery
It is vexing how these Bankers weave these Cunning web of deceit from deep Deep within their lairs from outside America .
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” ……John galbraith
If their is a God he better be getting ready to help the people of America , or may be he is a Zionist God , or a Muslim God or a hindu God who dont give a SH..about the peoples of America. May be our American God will have to fight off those other hydra headed Gods before he/she can help us out. Then again that help wont be for free he/she will be needing some serious, prayers , pledge of allegiance, some indulgences along with some up front greenbacks
I am suffering from a cognitive disconnect. The TARP bailout was to give $ to banks to ease the credit situation. Bank of America was not a troubled bank, but was forced to take money along with all the other financial institutions, so as not to brand which banks were in trouble. Now they are denying credit to this manufacturer and preventing them from making payroll? What is Bank of America doing with the windfall they were "forced" to take? If they really didn't want it, they should quietly give it all back, so that the government (TARP) can recycle it to a truly needy cause -- how about Republic Windows and Doors?
mary beardslee Bank of America got 15 billion from the swindlers Paulson and Bush-TREASONUS TRAITORS and guess what imediatly after they got the taxpayers money they invested & 7 BILLION IN COMMUNIST OWNED COMMERICAL BANK OF CHINA. WHY IS PAULSON
TRAVELING IN CHINA ON OUR DIME. ??? DO YOU NOT GET WHAT BUSH&CO has done to our economy? Also, if you did not read Paulson via Bush threatned Congress with Marshal Law if they did not comply with giving money to Paulsons and Bush's banking cronies. This was Bushs final f--- off to the US...Why are we not going after the swindlers?? Why do you think we now have 20,000 soldiers back from Iraq training here for crowd control? This was planned WMD's Destruction of our economy.
Workers getting screwed, eh? It has a familiar ring about it. Perhaps it's an integral part of capitalism. Gosh, could that be true?
Capitalism is a failed system (but not for the wealthy). The evidence is now spreading right across the world.
Perhaps it's time that we, the people, got rid of the parasites that have been exploiting us for two centuries. We need to create a new system, not one that is pure socialism, but one that combines the compassionate aspects of socialism with carefully controlled and regulated aspects of altruistic capitalism.
Altruistic Capitalism? Has DavidG gone mad? No, not really. Surely it's possible to encourage people to work hard and become comfortable without them turning into insatiable money-grubbers. You can do it by taxing more and more of their profits and doing away with tax lurks and havens. That way you remove the incentive for gross exploitation and greed.
After all, if you make extra money and it's taxed at 98% then what's the point of making it?
P.S. RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN. Where?
www.dangerouscreation.com
"not one that is pure socialism"
Hahaha...... not even socialists want socialism
GM destroyed mass transit. Make them rebuild it.
Read "Internal Combustion".
Please read the following with a warning that brainfreeze may follow.
Madison's Wisconsin State Journal,12-6-08.
State Rep.Mike Sheridan still is pushing for additional work for Janesville's General Motors plant.The Janesville Democrat met Thursday in Washington,D.C. with GM CEO Rick Wagoner,GM vice president of government relations Ken Cole and UAW president Ron Gettelfinger.Sheridan,a former leader of UAW Local 95,said he reminded executives that the local union's proposed work-rule changes and other concessions could save the company $120 million a year if it brings new work to Janesville.GM could use the proposed contract revisions as a template for negotiations at plants in other states,he said.
The Janesville plant is scheduled to end production of sport utility vehicles this month.
I had to read the above twice and still came up with-this guy's a Democrat and he's working with GM to ensure they don't miss a way to squeeze workers in every way possible.We are living in a twisted,unjust,unbalanced society. Template indeed! Iron Maiden is more like it.
I'm glad to see "main street", as we are called by the rich and powerful in D.C. and the guilded offices of CEO's across this country, come alive and protest the excesses of these aforementioned, "captains of Industry". See this protest must send chills down their collective spines to realize that if every one of us took to the streets or boycotted the banks, or marched on Washington to demand relief or accountability to the current creep in the White House, their capitolistic visions would come crashing down on their heads.
These leaders do not realize people throughout the country are pissed off and pissed off people who's pocketbooks are being pulled tighter and tighter, will snap, and when they do, God help them!!!
Let me also point out that after Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, he reportedly said, "I am a most unhappy man, I have unwittingly ruined my country....a great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit...all of our activities are in the hands of a few men..."
And those "few men" are still scamming the taxpayers of this country.
"Bank of America received $25 billion from the government's financial bailout package. The company said in a statement Saturday that it isn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees. ........If this bailout should go to anything, it should go to the workers of this country."
Bank of America is correct that it is not responsible for Republic's fiancial obligations. On the other hand, we were all led to believe that this "U.S. Taxpayer Bailout Money" to the banks was going to be used to stave off economic disaster in this country. Wow!!!!.....talk about being bamboozled....check out which country is benefiting from some of this $25 BILLION:
http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/2172
This is another nail in the coffin of the U.S. middle class, complements of George W. Bush; Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson; the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.
This "TARP" bailout will go down in history as the second LARGEST SCAM ever perpetrated upon the citizens of this country. The first was when Woodrow Wilson approved and signed the Federal Reserve Act.
In days gone by the factory owners would have sent Pinkerton goons to 'settle' with the workers.
Those days are long gone and now the owners must rely on tax payer provided Government goons.
Studs must be turning in his grave.
Both In Canada and the United States , the laws are set up to protect the Creditors rather then the worker in cases of Bankruptcy.
A company that goes under must pay the BANKS before any workers. It my opinion the worker should have first dibs at any monies. It simply inane that a person who might need that money to pay rent or put food on the table for a family comes second to a fat cat banker .
The worker should be considered a secured creditor and paid monies owned before anyone else.
A company director (ceo etc) would not be considered "workers".
That or remove the limited Liability from Corporations and allow the workers to sue the folk the directors and owners for lost wages AS WOULD be the case in a true free market.
PK
ABSOLUTELY right GwNorth! Thank you for stating it so clearly.
Here is where you were "Sold Out". When Bill Clinton was president, Daddy Bush
was promoting "The New World Order". Bill Clinton fell for it as he did not come
from an organized or understanding family that most of us came from.
His mother frequented Race Tracks. His Daddy was not around.
Bill Clinton adopted Nafta, and then pushed it through Congress. His wife Hillary
was very busy outsourcing work to India.
It was the dream of the Republican Party to break unions and reduce our standard
of living to third world countries. With he help and co-operation of Bill Clinton
the Republicans were able to finish the job. They sold-out our industrial base
to China. We no longer produce anything worth anything to other countries, including the launching of a missle to out of space that Bill Clinton gave to China as they did not know who to lift a missle of the ground.
Keep in mind that the Red Chinese gave lots of money to the Clintons.
Bill Clinton from living in Government housing poverty, has become worth maybe
50 million dollars. Why did Saudi Arabia give Clinton $10,000,000 {dollars}??
Why did Corporate America give Clinton another $10,000,000 during the Primary
of Hillary and Obama?
When will our citizens be told the truth? Telling the workers that we have to
be trained for another higher purpose is just so much Bull S...
Workers who took classes for this scam had their jobs outsourced to India by Hillary. No one is talking about the Bush Family ownership of The Carlyle Group
The group that is enjoying Government contracts. Most politicians have been
brainwashed into this new scam, as they are guaranteed a job by the government
with Health benefits and retirement like you cannot imagine.
Polticians are very well organized, we are not, the unions have failed us..
Here is where you were "Sold Out". When Bill Clinton was president, Daddy Bush
was promoting "The New World Order". Bill Clinton fell for it as he did not come
from an organized or understanding family that most of us came from.
His mother frequented Race Tracks. His Daddy was not around.
Bill Clinton adopted Nafta, and then pushed it through Congress. His wife Hillary
was very busy outsourcing work to India.
It was the dream of the Republican Party to break unions and reduce our standard
of living to third world countries. With he help and co-operation of Bill Clinton
the Republicans were able to finish the job. They sold-out our industrial base
to China. We no longer produce anything worth anything to other countries, including the launching of a missle to out of space that Bill Clinton gave to China as they did not know how to lift a missle of the ground.
Keep in mind that the Red Chinese gave lots of money to the Clintons.
Bill Clinton from living in Government housing poverty, has become worth maybe
50 million dollars. Why did Saudi Arabia give Clinton $10,000,000 {dollars}??
Why did Corporate America give Clinton another $10,000,000 during the Primary
of Hillary and Obama?
When will our citizens be told the truth? Telling the workers that we have to
be trained for another higher purpose is just so much Bull S...
Workers who took classes for this scam had their jobs outsourced to India by Hillary. No one is talking about the Bush Family ownership of The Carlyle Group
The group that is enjoying Government contracts. Most politicians have been
brainwashed into this new scam, as they are guaranteed a job by the government
with Health benefits and retirement like you cannot imagine.
Polticians are very well organized, we are not, the unions have failed us..
An Injury to One is an Injury to All
Submitted by dickreilly on Sun, 2008-12-07 18:18.
Here's a list of things you can do right now to show solidarity with the Republic Windows and Doors union worker now in their third day of the factory occupation in Chicago.
You can send a solidarity message from your union or community group by emailing: leahfried (at) gmail.com. For more information, call UE at 1- 312-829-8300.
You can sign the youth and student online petition campaign in solidarity with the embattled Republic Windows and Doors workers.
[ http://www.petitiononline.com/solidfac/petition.html ]
You can also join the Jobs with Justice email campaign and send a clear message to the Bank of America by clicking here:
[ http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/ ]
You can help spread the word online by posting corporate and alternativc news updates to your favorite blogs and websites. One place to get continuing updates is the Chicago Indymedia website at:
[ http://chicago.indymedia.org/ ]
You can also join the Facebook group "In Solidarity with the Chicago workers of Republic Windows and Doors here:
[ http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=38839274013&ref=nf ]
busterkikki
To: D. Reilley -- you are on the right track. Working people cannot get the reprieve from hunger and misery by bellyaching about it. You people should read books that describe conditions in the 1880s and '90s to see how workingmen beat the rich and uncaring and won back jobs and self respect. You may think you hate Socialists, but this country escaped a revolution similar to the Russian Revolution by the peaceful means they spelled out for men like Samuel Gompers, Eugene Debs and others who, by ther vows to win peacefully won the admiration and help of many wealthy men, the most important of whom was Clarence Darrow, who nearly went broke by doing it, but brought relief and self-respect back to the workingman, and peaceful leaders of labor, such as Eugene Debs and Samuel Gompers.
Have your anger and get over it. Organize. Strike, if necessary, but always within the law. Walk out, if necessary. Business has to have its workers. Make them get you to work on YOUR terms or on binding arbitration.
Don't just sit there and bellyache. Hold your heads up, organize and fight for your future!
"You may think you hate Socialists"
None hates socialists, you just pity them for being so ignorant, brainwashed and easy to manipulate.
.A cheap and easy criticism that is, in the end, only critical of you for its lack of substance. Why not gain some respect for your position by explaining why it is that you abhor a socialist political solution? You may not even be aware of the successes that several nations around the world have had using the principles of socialism.
What is it about that political philosophy that causes such a knee jerk reaction, I wonder? Is it the free health care to all? Is it the free education through and including graduate school? Free transportation? Limits on profits and insistence on fair wages and benefits? Have you ever been in a socialist state?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
My company is on 4 day weeks and will probably close the last two weeks of December. The "smart money" is we won't make it past January. Its only a few people going on unemployment and losing health insurance, but almost all of our customers have not issued their normal monthly or quarterly orders, have delayed deliveries or canceled orders. The trucks picking up our shipments, usually almost full of skids, are coming in almost empty. Its really getting scary.
Chessgame has it right. Globalization has been abused as a shortcut to profits by short sighted, short term, copycat money grubbers (aka visionary CEOs) almost to the point of no return. While regulators buried their heads in the sand as debt expanded beyond imagination. These factory workers are right. We have all been sold out.
I'm sure no economist, but it seems to me that right now, along with people being rightly worried about spending precious dollars or taking on more debt, commodity deflation and building inventories lead buyers to understand that buying later will likely mean buying cheaper. I would guess (wildly) that in the next few months buying will pick up on ideas that prices have bottomed. Hopefully that will begin better times and if Obama's infrastructure spending is big enough and smart enough then we'll be on a better road. That road will likely eventually lead to inflation, but that's better than depression.
Hopefully, there will be more of these actions. The slogan is catchy, and perfectly encapsulates the plunder of the last couple of months, backed by both parties.
"News" stories like the one above are naive in the extreme. You think the capitalists care whether you live or die? They read stories like this while laughing all the way to the bank with your money in their pocket. The story of worker rights, over the decades, is written in blood splattered all over the sidewalks: Ford at one point shot dead workers who opposed the company during strikes. Don't think we've come very far: economic inequality today is actually right back to the level it was 80 years ago. And, that circumstance is a key causal factor in the current economic collapse in the U.S. In particular, you can't buy the output if the capitalist routinely steals your funds. That's not to say, by the way, that we should be producing all this crap in the first place. Since when do we need all this trash that's just destroying the environment? Shut the cancerous economic "growth" system down and start from scratch.
K G A I N E R,
Perhaps the naiveté is closer than you think ?
How is it even possible that the corporape of America can continue -- without the implied consent and commercial profits tied to actual people who can or will be "voting with their pocket books" ( for what ever is left to spend ) ?
If nothing else is clear about bu$h!t dumped abundantly into every American's mouth, it is clear that they live and breath … AS IF
_ I M A G E _ I S _ E V E R Y T H I N G _
… ( well almost ) along with _ P R O F I T _.
Capitalists do care about maintaining profitability, and when something obvious contracts and steps upon their LIFE-LINE, it is then a purely Darwinian reaction for SURVIVAL.
Without consumers, corporations are empty buildings, while STILL costing banks millions in lost rent.
It's the people that are always ultimately in charge of their destinies --- it just takes a bit of bubble bursting and economic ruin for the message to eventually seep in --- and then permeate every aspect of America's life !
Namaste
As long as outsourcing (and in-sourcing) continue unabated, it will continue to be a race to the the bottom. NAFTA and GATT must be revoked or revised, and immigration brought under control. Otherwise, get used low wages, broken (or no) labor unions, and an ever-accelerating economic descent. Those at the top, presently reaping all the benefits should be warned too that they will not be able to keep or maintain their ill begotten gains forever without paying the price; there will be a backlash. The lessons of history prove this.
Excellent comment.
Sioux Rose
I just wrote a list of all the things I have been subjected to at Bank of A, whether the CD censors had their lights on, or whatever, it was not posted. I have NEVER dealt with a more unfair punitive bank in my adult life. They deserve to fail, and whoever writes policy for that bank should have to clean up the depeleted uranium toilets of IRaq.
I dumped Bank of America four years ago. They are a boil on the north end of a south bound mule in my opinion. I went and found me a small locally owned and operated bank and have been happier ever since. Small locally owned and operated bank are getting hard to find these days. Seems like every time they become popular in a given area some bigger bank buys them out. Hope that doesn't happen to my bank.
Rickster
.I deal almost exclusively with credit unions....check 'em out!
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
"whether the CD censors had their lights on, or whatever,"
I'm pretty that sure CD doesn't engage in censorship, except for SPAM or hate speech.
.Just who the heck are you, Joe? You are either a shill for the forum and for the government or you are playing some sort of game with which I am unfamiliar. Noone could possibly be as unconcerned with how much you embarrass yourself here with your fairy tale opinions, endless false assumptions and outright falsehoods without some sort of ulterior motivation.
I apologize for the rudeness of my comment to you but you simply get in the way of intelligent discussion and debate.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
As in much of your unwarranted beliefs "Joe", so prolifically spread ( like bad manure ), you are completely wrong once again.
Your surety is no replacement for facts and truth.
I've been ousted from CD as recently as today, and almost a dozens times before.
¿ Perhaps your ignorance is only outpaced by your arrogance ?
Namaste
.They are little different from most major banking institutions. CitiGroup in fact has been associated with almost every major financial scandal in our modern history. I think that old A.P. Giannini would be rolling in his grave about now.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
For more info on this event, today's Daily Kos has a great Recommended Diary by ChicagoLife: "Updated II (with Video): Republic Window Workers Occupy Factory".
As a Teamster, Dubuque Local 421, I view as encouraging that these union workers are organizing to stand up to this surprise and unjust plant closure.
Dennis Kucinich's rallying speech at the convention comes to mind: "Wake up, America!"
Indeed, it's time to wake up and organize and stand up for what's right.
Bill in Dubuque
Yep...we've all been sold out, BUT remember the voters had a chance to change things. They voted for more of the same. Now voters remorse is setting in. Sorry, but we get what we vote for. If Nader was Prez, and the Congress had more Independents we would have BIG CHANGE.
.Continue to speak the truth as you see it, Ms. Jackowski. Do not be deterred by those who refuse to analyze the candidacy and the appointments of our new President Elect, both of which clearly point to a rightward leaning and an obeisance to the same old moneyed class that has run this govt and run this economy into the ground while getting filthy rich in the process.
Electing independents to office is, in fact, the only way short of violent revolution to rid our governance of the influence and power of money. Those who continue to call for an end to criticism are, in the end, a part of the problem and will only come on board when the issue is no longer in doubt. Hypocrites and cowards all.
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
ardee,
I don't think so.... as posted below from the Chicago sun times
"BY ABDON PALLASCH Sun-Times Political Reporter
President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
“Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,’’ he said. “Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
“That’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s going to be the central focus of my administration.”
.I read this the first time you posted it, about eleven inches up. I see this as offering assistance, not to the workers but, in his own words," That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system". You know, the very system in which overwhelming greed and selfishness caused this mess in the first place....
Now if he wants to guarantee workers pensions are fully funded, the lack of which is partially what is bringing down the big three auto makers by the by, if he wants to install programs to retrain laid off workers, if he wants to guarantee workers the right to organize, if he wishes to re-institute a tariff structure to protect American manufacturing jobs, well where do I sign up?
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
J I M _ G L O V E R,
Thank you for providing the latest up to date information, although how well this rubber will hit this road ( or in any other future example ), will vary significantly as does our mileage.
Obama silage to propel our mileage -- there is a glimmer of hope, yet I feel reluctant to "bank" on it.
Namaste
busterkikki
Rosemary, I don't want to pick on you, but a lot of us are getting tired of hearing this "if" stuff. Obama hasn't even taken office yet, and you, by your statments, are expecting failure on his part before he even has a chance.
Do you think you are being fair?
No ifs about it: real change can only come when enough citizens are willing to tire themselves out by working for and voting for those who represent the wishes of the masses instead of voting for those the profiteering establishment backs.
That would be the kind of tired that rewards, not the kind that irritates those "lot of us" folks you claim to, and unfortunately do, represent.
As for you rosemarie jackowski, keep repeating the mantra "we get what we vote for," and maybe someday the busters of the country will finally wake up and understand. Just don't hold your breath. As Michael Moore said: "Americans are the dumbest people on the planet."
Once again, all together now: We get what we vote for.
Polls have shown that about 80% of the people of the US want affordable universal health care with those wanting single payer health care forming a majority of that 80%. Polls have shown that the majority of citizens want the US out of Iraq immediately.
When those don't happen, not even in the next four or eight years, don't forget that Rosemary told you: We get what we vote for.
"Do you think you are being fair?"
Have you noticed the people Obama is surrounding himself with? Does it sound like change to you?
Rickster
A small thing to do would be to send a protest message to Bank of America:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica/
Thanks, I did. It's good to have something to do besides gnashing your teeth!
As I noted in comments to John Nichols' article on this subject:
Remember, the First Brigade of the Third Infantry Division, three to four thousand soldiers, has been deployed in the United States as of October 1.
Unless Blackwater low-balls them, this might be a great opportunity for our fighting boys & girls to strut their stuff!
· Yr Obd't Servant
PROTESTORS:WE GOT SOLD OUT. When I first read this headline, I thought it was an article about Obama selling out!
Oh really,
BY ABDON PALLASCH Sun-Times Political Reporter
President-elect Barack Obama put himself on the side of the workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory Sunday:
“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said Sunday at a news conference announcing his new Veterans Affairs director. “What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.
“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their workforces. That’s why it’s so important for us to maintain a strong financial system. But it’s also important for us to make sure that the plans and programs that we design aren’t just targeted at maintaining the solvency of banks, but they are designed to get money out the doors and to help people on Main Street. So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.
“Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again,’’ he said. “Have we done everything that we can to make sure credit is flowing to businesses and to families, and to students who are trying to get loans? And to homeowners who have been making payments on their homes but are still finding their property values so depressed that it becomes very difficult for them to make the mortgage payments?
“That’s where the rubber hits the road and that’s going to be the central focus of my administration.”
I thought the same thing as you did.
Yeah, me too.
· Yr Obd't Servant