Yes, the company should be forced to pay the company policy severance package and pay any owed vacation, absolutely. However, you can't stop them from closing the plant.

Hi everyone-

It seems as if the "strike" or "sit in" is getting good press. Here is the article from the Chicago Sun Times.

Everyone sign the petitions and email to your friends.

Have they made the middle class so desperate that they will finally align themselves with the poor and even people of color?

I hope millions of us will take to the streets this spring and send a clear message that we are not going to put up with the same bushit.

Power to the people! Si se peude!

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.”

Instead compalining that Obama supported the bailout, which wasn't so simple a decision as we would like to believe, we can help the workers more by telling Obama and Congress (oh, what the hell, tell maybe even tell Bush) that the companies participating in the bailout have to suffer repercussion for this, and sit down strikes need to become legal again. They were outlawed because of their effectiveness in organizing the auto industry during the Depression.

An Nichols is right that FDR was able to use the political movements of the time to get support for addressing the problems.

Perhaps the author has forgotten that after 50 years of corporate controlled media, the average American actually thinks unions are 'bad'! Eventually those poor workers will be demonized by FOX News, radio hate shows and other MSM. The police will come in and 'rescue' the endangered and a week later it will be catalogued into the archives of missed opportunities.
The corporate launch of the "Me" generation over 40 years ago has been successful in destroying the traditional collective in which average Americans depended on one another for our daily sustenance. What has replaced this lost generation, is a contemporary model in which the rush to get a new IPod or botox injection has trumped our traditional concerns for good governance and moral direction.
The AFL-CIO has shown its political ignorance by throwing their support year after year behind candidates that have been handpicked by their adversaries. But when truly progressive candidates present themselves to working Americans (i.e. Dennis Kucinich), the public quickly dismisses them on the advice of their chosen party for being too radical, too short or too unrealistic.
The end result is that workers, like the 260 republic Window and Door employees, will only be used by politcal and media pundits to blame anyone or anything EXCEPT the dog-eat-dog, corporate friendly, anti-democratic system we find ourselves stuck in.

AP
Riots in 2 Greek cities after teen killed

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By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer Elena Becatoros, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 7 mins ago
Greeks take stock of riot damage Play Video Reuters – Greeks take stock of riot damage

* Police shooting sparks riots in Greece Slideshow: Police shooting sparks riots in Greece
* Greek youths riot after police shoot teen Play Video Video: Greek youths riot after police shoot teen AP

A man covers his face from tear gas as a Ford dealership burns during clashes in AP – A man covers his face from tear gas as a Ford dealership burns during clashes in central Athens on Sunday, …

ATHENS, Greece – Hundreds of youths angered by the fatal police shooting of a teenager rampaged through Greece's two largest cities for a second day Sunday in some of the worst rioting the country has seen in years.

Gangs smashed stores, torched cars and erected burning barricades in the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki. Riot police clashed with groups of mostly self-styled anarchists throwing Molotov cocktails, rocks and bottles. Clouds of tear gas hung in the air, sending passers-by scurrying for cover.

Rioting in several cities, including Hania in Crete and cities in northern Greece, began within hours of the death Saturday night of a 15-year-old shot by police in Exarchia. The downtown Athens district of bars, music clubs and restaurants is seen as the anarchists' home base.

Soon stores, banks and cars were ablaze.

The rioting was some of the most severe Greece has seen in years. The last time a teenager was killed in a police shooting — during a demonstration in 1985 — it sparked weeks of rioting. In 1999, a visit to Greece by then U.S. President Bill Clinton sparked violent demonstrations in Athens that left stores smashed and burned.

The two officers involved in Saturday's shooting have been arrested and charged, one with premeditated manslaughter and the illegal use of a weapon, and the other as an accomplice. They are to appear before a court Wednesday. They and the Exarchia precinct police chief have been suspended.

Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos, whose offer to resign was rejected Sunday, has promised a thorough investigation.

"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," he said. "The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy."

Police said the two officers involved claimed they were attacked by a group of youths and, when they confronted the youths, one fired three shots and the other threw a stun grenade.

Violence broke out again Sunday afternoon in Athens and Thessaloniki during demonstrations to protest the shooting. "Cops, pigs, murderers," protesters chanted.

Police said 24 policemen were injured in Athens in overnight riots that started Saturday, and another 13 on Sunday, while seven people were arrested and another 15 were detained.

As night fell, groups of youths, some masked and others wearing motorcycle helmets, set trash cans alight and overturned cars to erect burning barricades on streets around the Athens Polytechnic — which, like all universities, is protected by law from police intrusion. Some could be seen walking on the roof of the Polytechnic, taunting police.

Violence in the capital began to die down late Sunday, after several hours of running battles between police and rioters. In Thessaloniki, a large fire could be seen burning at the city's university.

A blurry video shot by a bystander that purportedly shows the shooting Saturday has been aired on Greek television and posted on the Internet. Two sounds that could be gunshots can be heard, but the image is too blurry and distant to show the events clearly.

Greece has seen frequent and sometimes violent demonstrations recently against the increasingly unpopular conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis. The opposition Socialists are now consistently ahead in opinion polls.

Dozens of stores in central Athens went up in flames or saw their storefronts smashed. At least two buildings were destroyed by fire, as was a Ford car dealership. Streets were littered with chunks of paving stones and rocks thrown at riot police, as well as shattered glass from storefronts and banks.

"I understand the anger and the right to demonstrate it," Pavlopoulos said Sunday night. "What is inconceivable is the raw violence that undermines social peace and turns against the property of innocent people."

Violence often breaks out between riot police and anarchists during demonstrations in Greece. Anarchist groups are also blamed for late-night firebombings of targets such as banks and diplomatic vehicles.

The self-styled anarchist movement partly has its roots in the resistance to Greece's 1967-74 military dictatorship. The youths tend to espouse general anti-capitalist and antiestablishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police.

____

Associated Press writers Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki and Dimitris Nellas in Athens contributed to this report.

Thoughts_Into_Action writes:

"I hope this union effort succeeds, but the author's attempt to associate it with Obama's policies and the need for public pressure falls flat. Obama supported the bailout, no strings attached."

John Nichols' enthusiasm for the 750-million-dollar man is a continuing puzzlement.

Meanwhile, if the empty birthday suit doesn't declare National Health IMMEDIATELY on taking office -- if he does take office -- the thing to do is a General Strike.

Employment/unemployment hassles have to do with medical coverage as much as anything -- and account for the fact that slews of public employees will go along with ANY perfidy, rather than blowing the whistle, to keep their medical coverage.

Whereas Bank of America has millions PRESSED upon it, any individual applying for unemployment, or trying to straighten out any kind of Social Security hassle -- which, through the miracle of computers, are apt to arise just when people need medical care -- has to do more paperwork than the "bailouts" required of the corporations.

Everybody knows this is nowhere.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All

Here's a list of things you can do right now to show solidarity with the Republic Windows and Doors union workers 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 ]

I hope this union effort succeeds, but the author's attempt to associate it with Obama's policies and the need for public pressure falls flat. Obama supported the bailout, no strings attached. I'm sure most people writing to Obama at the time opposed the bailout.

Obama even rejected a pre-bailout plan that would have engaged the courts to help restructure the debts of homeowners unable to pay their mortgages, according to Dennis Kucinich.

Unions supported Obama, but it will be interesting to see if they get anything in return, unlike the Wall Street investment banks.

-TIA

"We're going to stay here until we win justice," says Blanca Funes, 55, of Chicago, who was one of the UE members occupying the Republic factory over the weekend for several hours."

They are going to have a very long wait. The factory is closed, so workers aren't needed. Bush won't do anything and we all know about Bank of America.

Sioux Rose

JGOODMAN: MY tales of woe and hell with Bank of America could probably fill a book. They have a complete absence of conscience, applying absolutely punitive letter-of-the-law approaches to their clients of average "banking status," and the "first class" treatment to members of the offending elite team.

The way these bastards pay their CEOS and go on junkets as America burns, as people are thrown out of homes, I mean is this the Christmas banquet where every Ebineezer Scrooge can at last come out of the closet, encouraged by Ronald Reagan giving greed a 20th century facelift, now they can proudly strut their stuff, absolutely convinced of their Divine right to plunder others. They no longer need the cost of debtors' prisons, the chains are invisible and quite effective!

A L L

Please follow this UE provided link _here_ to directly contact BoA management, with a prepared or editable email of concern and outrage.

My suggestion was to change the name to more honestly descriptive

" Bank of Corporape of America "

Namaste

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

Bank of America is the issuing bank for Working Assets credit cards. Social responsibility is supposed to be the founding principal of Working Assets. In 2004 I wrote to Bank of America wondering if they could not find another bank to issue their credit cards as Bank of America was one of the biggest supporters of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign.

Their answer, all the good things Working Assets does more than offsets the money that went to Bush-Cheney.

I decided at that point that socially responsible investment funds are willing to be socially responsible only as long as they are not inconvenienced by it. I assume the executives of Working Assets hate to rock the boat and risk their paychecks whether the source of those paychecks is socially responsible or not.