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TechnoratiWorkers Occupy Chicago Factory: Echoes of Argentina's 2001 Worker Uprising
When the 250 workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago were told that the plant was shutting down, they decided to take matters into their own hands. On Friday, December 5, the workers occupied their factory in an act that echoes the sit-down strikes of the 1930s in the US and the occupation of factories during the 2001 crisis in Argentina.
"They want the poor person to stay down. We're here, and we're not going anywhere until we get what's fair and what's ours," Silvia Mazon, 47, a formerly apolitical mother and worker at the factory for 13 years told the New York Times. "They thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for Christmas, it doesn't matter."
The workers are demanding that they be paid their vacation and severance pay, or that the factory continue its operations. They were given only three days' notice of the shut down, not the 60 days' notice which is required under federal and state law.
On Friday, fifty of the workers at the plant - taking shifts in the occupation - sat on chairs and pallets inside the factory and were supplied with blankets, sleeping bags and food from supporters. Throughout the takeover, workers have been cleaning the building and shoveling snow while protesters gathered in solidarity outside waving signs and chanting.
The occupation of the factory - which produces heating efficient vinyl windows and sliding doors - is taking place in the midst of a massive recession, with the rate of unemployment in the US at a 15 year high, and with 600,000 manufacturing jobs lost in this year alone. As another indicator of the economic crisis, 1 in 10 Americans - a record of 31.6 million - now use food stamps.
The factory workers are protesting the fact that the Bank of America received $25 billion in the recent $700 billion government bailout, and then went ahead and cut off credit to Republic Windows and Doors, resulting in the subsequent closing of the factory.
"The bank has the money in this situation," said Mark Meinster, a representative of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, the union the factory workers belong to. "And we are demanding that Bank of America release the money owed to workers who have earned it and are entitled to it." On Monday Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced that, in support of the workers, the state will temporarily stop doing business with Bank of America.
President-elect Barack Obama also announced his support: "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 . . . what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy."
Rev. Jesse Jackson delivered turkey and groceries to the workers, saying, "These workers are to this struggle perhaps what Rosa Parks was to social justice 50 years ago... This, in many ways, is the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence."
Occupy, Resist, Produce: Argentina's 2001 Crisis
Argentina's crisis was similar to the current recession in the US in the sense that in December of 2001, almost overnight, Argentina went from having one of the strongest economies in South America to the one of the weakest. As the occupation of the factory in Chicago indicates, there are some tactics and approaches to combating economic crises that were used in Argentina that could be applicable during the US crisis.
During Argentina's economic crash, when politicians and banks failed, many Argentines banded together to create a new society out of the wreckage of the old. Poverty, homelessness and unemployment were countered with barter systems, alternative currency and neighborhood assemblies which provided solidarity, food and support in communities across the country.
Perhaps the most well known of these initiatives were the occupation of factories and businesses which were later run collectively by workers. There are roughly two hundred worker-run factories and businesses in Argentina, most of which started in the midst of the 2001 crisis. 15,000 people work in these cooperatives and the businesses range from car part producers to rubber balloon factories. Though the worker occupation of Republic Windows and Doors is different in many respects to examples of worker occupations in Argentina, it is worth reflecting on the strikingly similar situations workers in both countries found themselves in, and how they are fighting back.
The Chilavert book publisher in Buenos Aires offers one example of workers taking back a bankrupt factory to operate it as a worker cooperative. "Occupy, resist and produce. This is the synthesis of what we are doing," Candido Gonzalez, a long time Chilavert worker explained to me during a visit to his bustling publishing house, with printing presses clamoring away in the background. "And it is the community as a whole that makes this possible. When we were defending this place there were eight assault vehicles and thirty policemen that came here to kick us out. But we, along with other members of the community, stayed here and defended the factory."
Candido didn't attribute Chilavert's success to any politician. "We didn't put a political party banner in the factory because we are the ones that took the factory. All kinds of politicians have come here asking for our support. Yet when the unions failed, when the state failed, the workers began a different kind of fight... If you want to take power and you can't take over the state, you have to at least take over the means of production."
Back in Chicago, at a time when politicians have failed to respond appropriately to one of the worst US economic crises in history, the occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory is a reminder that desperate times call for fresh approaches to social change.
"We aren't animals," Republic Windows and Doors employee Apolinar Cabrera, 43, told reporters. Cabrera is a father of two, with another child on the way, and has been an employee at the factory for 17 years. "We're human beings and we deserve to be treated like human beings."
Click here to take action in support of the workers at Republic Windows and Doors and to hold Bank of America accountable.
50 Comments so far
Show Allsnydly
THE HUMAN UNION---HU ARE YOU.
Membership---Everybody is already in it. Call the 800 # for the US Chamber of Commerce to opt out. Rejoin at any time.
Dues---Pay it forward with solidarity and good will.
Leadership---Organic nantan, talk it up, see what happens.
Tactics---Peaceful, Speaking Truth to Power, Resist, Occupy, Produce.
Goals---Fair pay, Fair play, Justice under the Law, Benefits to the Seventh Generation. No War.
One Planet, One People.
IF NOT NOW---WHEN?
Sioux Rose
TEDDY: I honor your empathy for others, particularly those harmed by US foreign and domestic policies. Some are blinded by patrotic-style "team" affiliations, and don't hear the nuances of your arguments.
BANK OF AMERICA CAN NOT GET RID OF EVERY GOVENOR IN THIS COUNTRY!
Yes, time for a world-wide social revolution. The more we turn the other cheek, the more abuse is dished out. Time to re-read The French Revolution!
Lets see, Obama, among other Dems and Repugs approve bail out plan with no requirement for banks to ease the credit crunch.
Company closes and workers out of job since no credit available from bank receiving tax payer dollars (or obligations) to keep company going until the economy picks up.
Obama simply says the workers should be paid any salary and compensation due, and too bad about the jobs, it's happening everywhere.
Well, if thats the hope and change you are all expecting, be prepared for more of the same same.
Oh yeah, but he is all for One World Government and globalization, which is reponsible for the export of American jobs, and this financial crisis that inspired the bail outs that are closing in on 2 trillion dollars has been manufactured to get people to go along with it.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7a03e5b6-c541-11dd-b516-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
Of course, this localized crisis in "Chicago", Obamas home state, is quite convenient given they want to provide another bail out to the automakers, money that must come from taxes or borrowed from investors that must pay interest and whose principal will never be paid so future generations must pay interest on it.
Your money or your jobs so say the bandits.
They can just go right ahead and occupy the factories without any fear of reprisals. All of the national guards would be goons are in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Benjamin,
I, too, noticed the similarities with the Argentine situation. FYI, I'm a geography grad student doing a dissertation on recovered businesses in Argentina. I visited a lot of those businesses earlier this year, met Candido at Chilavert and dozens of other people in the recovered business movement. I'd relish the chance to swap notes with you about what we have both learned.
The occupation of Republic Windows & Doors represents a potential sea change in how people view the legitimacy of capitalists' dictatorial control over the conditions of labor. The outpouring of support for the Republic workers--at even the level of government leadership--reveals that we live in a time where people are ready to stand up for economic justice, even if that means subverting some of the presumed powers of capital ownership, acknowledging that wage laborers have an ownership stake by virtue of the work they have put into building a company.
I would advise the working people of Republic Windows to start filling outstanding orders by selling existing stock in the warehouse. They can use the revenue to start paying their outstanding wages, and set aside any excess until their case is resolved. If possible, they should also use what machines and raw materials remain to resume production and meet what demand still exists. Without the overhead of management and ownership costs, the business might be able to lower prices and still meet the needs of its workers. This has been true for many recovered businesses in Argentina, and it could be true for the workers of Republic.
Under the requirements of the WARN act, these people have the right to continue working and collecting pay for 60 days (75, by Illinois law). If the owners of the business won't arrange for that, the workers occupying the factory can do it themselves. Anyone who opposes their right to work (and I mean their real "right to work"--not the union-busting euphemism that phrase has become), will find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion. Can you imagine how bad it would look for people to be arrested simply because they were doing productive labor to both provide useful goods and keep food on their families' tables?
Occupy, Resist, Produce.
Amazing information you are giving, wrkrcoop. Thank you, because there are of course practical questions around events like these:
what HAPPENS next? what do the workers do? how does the business go on with their take-over? and it seems it CAN turn out that as they manage themselves...what is REVEALED , as seems to have been shown in argentina repeatedly, is that "management" is the EXCESS
BAGGAGE all along in the capitalist structure.
and what one sees is -- while capitalism's structures of extreme top-down performance always places the actual workers as the "least important" reflected by pressures and tactics to keep lowering their "costs"...as shown by what is happening on CEO's salaries - the "excess" costs REALLY are AMONG THE TOP whose main job is to MAINTAIN their prerogatives.
for example:
how MUCH are the collective salaries of the desk job people in any big financial service company - weighed against that of a CEO yearly? exactly how NECESSARY is it that the "deciders" above earn 100 times the salary of an ordinary worker? and if workers were let go because the company isn't having revenue - why WERE the workers earning less than 100 times a CEO's or vice-president's fired ? why was the amount of cost for 100 workers "saved" by firing THEM and NOT the "cost" of maintaining the CEO?
we all know about the usual explanations:
"we are so important because we are RESPONSIBLE for MAKING the important DECISIONS".....
and YET they , the great majority of them are FAILURES!!! and NEVE
R produced ANYTHING in practical terms . they were there on the strength of the "aura" brought about by "reputation" as a "leader".
it's really funny -- this human psychology that is used in the corporate structure in capitalism. it's like a game of "magic" trying to MAKE people BELIEVE that the upper level managements are REALLY that important and that if anyone must be sacrificed to "keep the company going" -- it's a mass of workers below. ..and then those that are "left" are forced to TAKE UP THE SLACK - working the equivalent of TWO workers's jobs for the salary of ONE.
you see this FREQUENTLY in , for example, Nursing homes. CNA's (nursing assistants) and even nurses , are charged with , for example taking care of , say TEN old people who have to be washed, clothed, etc..before breakfast time or lunch within 2 hours or 4 or 5 - which , under the requirements to be very careful, including LIFTING them, needs much more timefor a SINGLE assistant to do - and ALSO have to document TONS of detailed paper work for every old person..or ELSE that assistant is questioned why such and such was not finished. its BRUTAL , backbreaking work...which nursing assistants are ALSO in many nursing homes , by "private business right to establish work policies" are NOT permitted to open their mouths in explanation OR ELSE be "written down for INSUBORDINATION". and if a worker gets ill on a day, the 10 people she has will be spread among the rest - STILL REQUIRED to finish it all "properly" within an even SHORTER time period..
most people do not know that...it is literally SLAVE work..all the while that nursing homes, mostly privately owned and listing themselves as "nonprofit" - don't pay taxes, but OPERATE like for profit with their private investors - while also charging residents not only their private savings of their families, but the social security, medicaire and medicaid...and if workers have no unions , they can forget their break times if supervisors decide one way or another..always with the jstification "residents come first"....until workers end up BURNED OUT, SICK, and eventually are SPAT OUT by the system and replaced by another "body". and it's based on as much "understaffing" as they can legally get away with.
people forget that Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. BEGAN his civil rights movement BECAUSE of the slavish working conditions in NURSING HOMES and other utility companies.
Perhaps the proper sequence for the US is: Occupy, Produce, Resist.....
CHICAGO – The creditor of a Chicago plant where laid-off employees are conducting a sit-in to demand severance pay said Tuesday it would extend limited loans to the factory so it could resolve the dispute, but the workers declared their protest unfinished.
The Bank of America took $25,000,000,000 of the tax payers bailout money
which is more than a year's worth of illegal narcotics traffic. Who's the real junkie?
BofA backed down? Folks in hell will need a parka now.
Help reduce the National Debt - TAX CHURCHES!
If the workers at Republic Windows were not unionized, this
wouldn't even be a story. They would simply be out on the street,
and if there was any money left after the liquidation, they would
not see any of it until the primary lien-holders had been paid, which
is another way of saying "diddly".
Republic windows has been losing money for the last 5 years, and
even though they are reducing their costs, they aren't doing it
fast enough to return to profitability any time "soon". Here's a
concise statement of the companies finances:
1998 a- Republic moves to new headquarters on Goose Island.
2002 a- Company reports first loss in history.
a- Loss history
2008/Q3 $5.7mm
2007 $5.5 mm
2006 $7.2 mm
Results from Previous Management Team
2005 $21.1 mm
2004 $5.7 mm
2003 $3.7 mm
2006-07 a- Richard Gillman, previously a minority shareholder buys out all
other partners assumes all debt obligations and adds ±$2,200,000 of
his personal funds to add capital to the business; installs new COO
from outside of the company.
2006-07 a- Fixed expenses are reduced $18.9 mm, or 47%.
02/2007 a- Productivity increased ± 30%.
02/2007 a- Gillman secures new capital.
11/2008 a- Gillman family forms Echo Windows, LLC.
(from
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Statement-Republic-Windows-Doors/story.aspx?guid=%7BADF76E34-99F...)
It's the rock and hard place problem. The company wouldn't be profitable for
years. The bank is under no obligation to help them become profitable. The
15 billion dollars of public bailout money given to Bank of America was given
with no strings attached, so the Public is not sitting on the board of directors
of BofA, so the public cannot influence the decisions of the board.
A sane response, thank you. It sucks for these workers, and what they are doing certainly calls attention to what is going to be a problem all over the country. In the end however, it will not amount to much. The fair thing to do is to look at ALL the creditors, add up the debt, figure what percentage of that debt they can pay if they liquidate all their assets and pay each creditor based on that percenatge (including the workers).
In other words it just stinks and once again the American worker is getting screwed. What a deal!
Lets begin a new future for Humanity without money and the worry of losing ones job. Want to know more?
See Zeitgeist 1 & 2 and visit the Venus Project website.
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
http://www.thevenusproject.com/
Then join the movement:
http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/
Again, the problem, and the bad actor in this case is the company for not giving the proper notice and witholding the severance and vacation. BOA has done nothing wrong.
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 fourth day of the factory occupation in Chicago. Your support can make a difference.
You can send a solidarity message from your union or community group by clicking this link [ http://www.ueunion.org/republic_main.html ] and entering your message in the form provided on the webpage.
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 organize solidarity demonstrations at the nearest branch office of Bank of America. UE workers in North Carolina are doing just that.
[ http://www.ueunion.org/uenewsupdates.html?news=428 ]
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/ ]
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/ ] and the UE webpage at: [ http://www.ueunion.org/index.html ]
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 ]
And finally, please consider making a donation to the cause.
Contributions are both welcome and needed: through PayPal: use the 'Donate' button on the UE home page. [ http://www.ueunion.org/index.html ]
By Mail: UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, UE Western Region, 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607
Finally, people are starting to take action. Thomas Jefferson said it is our duty to replace the government if it stops working.
Publicly financed elections and term limits NOW!
I think it was ALSO jefferson that warned (even while his generation was still trying to wrestle with their own inconsistencies of holding slaves) - that WEALTH should be CONTROLLED from accumulating in the hands of the few . if i remember correctly - he himself insisted that a LIMIT to the amount of wealth that can be accumulated should be IMPOSED :
:"lest we lose our liberty". i think he was the one, among others , that feared that "the undue accumulation of wealth into a few PRIVATE hands will spell the death of liberty...".
he also was one of those that thought INHERITANCES should not be passed on indefinitely - because the wealth accumulated by a family, no matter how well-earned , FUNDAMENTALLY STILL BELONGED to what THEY called "the commons". and should pass right back to the people.
in other words they were VERY aware that great gaps of wealth are inherently Undemocratic . i think they were already discussing what to do , even then, with what James Madison clearly defined...as the "growing power of the corporations".
they speak those words today -- they'd be accused of being LEFTIST, COMMIES, AMERICA-HATING, LIBERALS,.....
the problem with the USA mentality is that - people have been so "LoCKED" up (pun intended) -- into the idea first codified by the englishman John Locke, over 400 hundred years ago - about "FENCING" in a plot of land and than calling it "private property"....
until the idea of a COMMONS - the idea that NO ONE really owns ANY land in this earth, and by extension no one REALLY has any "private" ownership, except by agreement of the community -- is forgotten. and from there, the idolatry of accumulating WEALTH by grabbing as much property into "private" hands becomes the norm - to the detriment of society as a whole.
it can easily be seen when one walks to enjoy a park one ONCE enjoyed as a child...and find that what was ONCE public land.....is now "private property...no trespassers allowed".
and that is what the "wealth accumulators" have done to the world. ..by saying that :
we have to ORGANIZE society like THIS: 99 pieces for ME , and 1 piece for ALL OF THE REST OF YOU.
CAPITALISM is its MOST EFFICIENT way of applying that kind of organization...more efficient than feudalism .....because it COERCES the WHOLE population into supporting THIS kind of "private property" dictatorship by allowing the "rest of you" to have their LITTLE PLOTS of "private ownership" and pacify them - while the masters actually OWN ALL OF THEM.
SEEchange--After so many years! A Presidential Eagle has Landed.
One small step for a Leader, One Giant Step for All of Labor.
WORKERS UNITE!
underSTAND & DELIVER:
http://flickr.com/photos/bithead/2488491782/in/pool-828437@N25
Artist General -- what a wonderful name , hehe.
my comment is that --these kinds of worker "cooperative" movements are so isolated in the USA and ALIEN to the "culture" and economic/political thinking that ALL they need is to make ONE mistake -- say a little physical scuffle --and you'll see the POLICE STATE , MILITARY STATE unglove its hand. they are just WAITING for that to declare such things as "threats to the security of the nation".
20,000 MILITARY personnel in the USA are not on high alert ALREADY for NO REASON about "domestic terrorism and crisis".
and NOTE:
CRISIS is an open-ended word..it can mean ANYTHINGand ANYTHING is only important according to how the MILITARY and POLICE state DEFINES it. it doesn't matter how people define it. ONLY the military and police have the authority to define whether something falls under "crisis".
and what is to be feared is THIS kind of statehood because it fits RIGHT into what Benjamin Franklin predicted or warned against:
"Should this nation fall...it shall not fall from foreign enemies or threats, REAL or IMAGINED. it shall fall because the people are corrupt".
HE also warned:
"Democracy EVENTUALLY arrives at TYRANNY...through the waging of wars....foreign wars and the loss of liberties at home come hand in hand".
I will get it right yet.
Her are other phone numbers 703-667-5473. If you know how to use telephone numbers, you have many options here.
I have called three places. We can call many B of A’s around the country.
What does being undocumented have to do with an honest day’s work? That makes you a racist pig.
It was my 25 Billion dollars that paid Bank of America. I want that money to go to these people.
darn right. ..and by the way....one reason bank of america couldn't "extend credit" to the business is because BoA was too busy BUYING UP its competitors and using its funds for THAT. ...and THAT is its real justification (unsaid of course) ...for shirking ITS legal obligation as a banker TO the business.
this is really about a BANK SCREWING both the BUSINESS and its owners (whatever their culpability 0r innocence and just trying to stay afloat) - and the workers.
this is a story about the UNPRODUCTIVE BANKERS - the USURERS of the day -- screwing people of the REAL ECONOMY -- such as the business and the workers.
unbelievable!
this is just another reason why - in REAL economy, in REAL america -- if they KNOW what is good for them in the long run, BUSINESSES OUGHT to operate on the principle of paying their workers WELL and working WITH their workers rather than treating them as "COST" -- for their REAL enemies ARE the bankers - who in reality COULDN"T and WOULDN"T exist WITHOUT the businesses who WOULDN"T exist WITHOUT the workers!!
the structure of finance and economy in america is UPSIDE DOWN and it is WRONG.
there are plenty of smaller or medium sized businesses in america that are HEALTHY that operate on the principle of treating their workers decently...whose workers would work with complete loyalty and hard work for them because they see each other as having a stake in it TOGETHER...and in hard times - the workers collectively agree with the owners that they must sacrifice for the sake of the whole..and in good times the company restores the benefits and all.
i read of a few...and there is one, I forget the precise company, owned for several decades now by a family -- and the owner , in his 80's SWEARS by his workers so much - even in the hardest of times - he would hang on to every single one of them. and the workers woudl do ANYTHING for their employer..and their company (i think it is some kind of ceramics company in connecticut or nearby) is doing JUST FINE.
We stop being nice. We demand that the Bank does right by these people or take our business elsewhere. I believe that I heard that one governor has stated the same. I will try to get more info.
At last! Working people are collectively opposing these on-going economic ripoffs and saying "NO MORE!" Here is a socialist perspective.
A great step forward
9 December 2008
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/pers-d09.shtml
"These workers are displaying enormous courage. They refused to be thrown out of the factory when management moved to shut down the plant last Friday, after giving the workers just three days notice. They have insisted they will not leave the plant until management pays the severance and vacation pay owed to each worker.
This action has a powerful objective meaning. The same conditions that have driven these workers into struggle are affecting millions throughout the US and around the world. Such struggles are going to erupt more and more frequently as the economic crisis compels workers to act collectively to assert their own class interests."
To my brothers and sisters: Stay strong, stay united and keep up the struggle!
Help reduce the National Debt - TAX CHURCHES!
Start with the right wing nut cases i.e.Robertson ect. Some people claim Pat Robertson is worth several billion $, and there is no way to tell, but when you go on the 666 club and openingly condone the assassination of Hugo Chavez, that should be grounds to lose your tax exempt status.
EXACTLY! TAX THEM! churches are BUSINESSES operating as "moral" centers no different from a business offering "yoga classes", or "transcendental meditation", or "self awareness", or EXCERCISE gym ,
they are BUSINESSES.
in fact -- the OLDEST ORGANIZED BUSINESS known to humankind.
TAX THEM! after all - those that work for them in offices that are NOT church members but professional workers like a secretary or something have taxes taken out of their paychecks, why should the Churches then be SUPPORTED by the Paycheck TAXES of workers by being exempted when they are BUSINESSES employing TAXABLE workers like a church gardener or handyman?
TAX THEM.
Sioux Rose
Well, one article today shows that squatters are taking possession of abandoned homes, and here factory workers are holding seige to protect their rights. When Americans don't have the ways and means to maintain immediate food and shelter, their political buttons do get pressed. The law of the jungle, Darwin's theories engineered to favor the rich and block sufficient substance from trickling down is now reversing.
And the word bankrupt is interesting, is it not, as the banks (dis) rupt our system and threaten security.
Bank of America is probably the most punitive bank I have ever dealt with in terms of leveraging fees against its depositors/clients. In June I sent my credit card payment and it arrived on June 2. I returned from a trip and had a bill pending, and quickly sent a SECOND check. The July bill showed that the first June check was put on the MAY payment, and then 2nd June check was a day late to their "billing cycle." They tried to charge me a $39 late fee, and negate the interest-free agreement I had with this credit card. I had to drive over (the woman on the phone refused to budge on this matter!) to settle it.
I just had another tango with Bank of A over a few SMALL checks that were overdrawn. When I went to a window the clerk didn't mention this. I had to fight to get these fees returned, and the first banker I spoke to (in the Orlando area) really resented me challenging the bank's rules. He sure paid homage to Mammon, and was so insistent that "even if you write a check for $1 over, you are obligated to pay $35" in his worship of the rules... that he used his computer to put a block on my account. I had to drive to yet another Bank of A where the manager told me about the block, but said she would do "the paperwork" to override it. Unbelievable how they treat clients, as if once the $ is in the bank it is THEIRS not the depositors! Greed kills.
they are , in one word: THIEVES whose criminalities are LEGALIZED .
Sioux Rose -- that was a horrible series of episodes with B0A for you. it just goes to show -- these are entities LEGALIZED to apply USURY upon people. it's USURY. time was when that was considered not only illegal but IMMORAL and unethical in any culture, ANY culture.
even the "bible" which "protestant work ethic" america loves to wave around so much speaks AGAINST usury as one GRIEVOUS sin.
islam, as far as I know FORBIDS it entirely, and at certain periods was even considered punishable by death....because it is considered sinful to profit at other people's need or suffering. but - that's america, u know. the BANKS are the Masters of the Universe. ..even if they comprise the LEAST TRULY PRODUCTIVE class of the population.
One man's usury is another man's home loan. If you put a low limit on the amount of interest a company can charge then they only loan to the most credit worthy. It's like the misguided efforts to cap the interest rates of the payday loan industry. That's fine, and they are a blight, but they won't loan money at the imposed rate. Most of them will just close shop and the owners will figure another business to get into.
Good points.
"Well, one article today shows that squatters are taking possession of abandoned homes"
You are mistaken here. These are not abandoned homes they are vacant homes. They are someone elses property.
And let me defend B of A...........Oops, I can't, they suck. They are dishonest and any time a Bank intenionnaly breaks the law by aiding law breakers, someone should go to jail.
Bank of America
(703) 538-3885
467 N Washington St, Falls Church, VA 22046 Map it | Get directions
Cross Streets: Between W Jefferson St/E Jefferson St and W Columbia St/E Columbia St
Sioux Rose
DOG: Is this their executive office? I am ready to send a sizzling letter to their CEO? My earlier posting only reflects 2 problems I had with this bank, there were 3 other doozies, one almost costing me legal action!
Since I believe in symbolism (it's a tool in any writer's bag) the name FALLS CHURCH is fascinating... implying the fall of the church, and likely rise of other, in the case of B of A, MAMMON, its true deity.
Why are there not more comments on this subject here?
Why aren’t we calling Bank of America and telling them to give back the credit to this company or we will take our business elsewhere?
https://secure.opinionlab.com/ccc01/comment_card.asp?time1=1228846178465&time2=1228846243157&prev=http...
Give them your feedback. I did.
I sympathize with these workers. There should have been notice, back pay, holiday pay, etc. I do wonder though how many of these workers are illegals? Articles should show that as a matter of course.
It has been established that some are illegals I believe. And though I am adamantly againsrt illegal immigration and allowing illegal aliens to be used to take jobs from American workers, these illegals should get exactly the same thing other workers get. Its our fault they are allowed to be used by business, they earned their wages, honesty demands they get them.
What the heck difference does it make if someone's a so-called "illegal immigrant"? If someone has difficulty finding adequate employment in their country of origin or are victims of violence or repression there, they should have every right to immigrate to the US or anywhere else to seek employment. People should have the right to work and earn a decent living, period; it shouldn't make any difference where they are born and people who are born in a wealthy country like the US shouldn't thereby be more entitled to a job here than people who aren't. We're all HUMANS; nobody is an "alien." And it's absurd to speak of "illegal immigrants" or "illegal aliens" as "taking jobs from American workers," as if they didn't spend money and pay taxes (and thereby create more jobs) just like people born in the US do.
The terminology and attitudes you are expressing are quite racist, frankly. I'm appalled that someone who frequents Common Dreams and presumably thinks of themselves as somehow progressive has these kinds of attitudes toward immigrants.
Your suggestion that this is racist is frankly offensive in the extreme. Just because you buy into big business's rhetoric and believe the lies advocated by their shills doesn't give you any moral authority to say anything about someone else. Aside from that I fail to see what race has to do with illegal aliens per se.
From bottom up, these are not immigrants, these are criminals. You may not agree with the law of ythe land but till you get it changed thats what they are. They are illegal aliens, criminally resident in our country.
If you paid any attention to facts rather that business propaganda you'd be aware that each one of these illegals, every single one cost American citizens a minimum of $780.00 each per year (depending on the state of residence) over and above any taxes they pay or any other benefit they generate. This is a net deficit for Americans, but it does increase profits for your friends in big business.
No one is entitled to a job anywhere in fact. But jobs generated in America should go only to Americans. Not citizens of another country.
The idea that you would advocate taking jobs from American families and give them to illegal aliens, your approval of using illegal aliens to depress wages for Americans is appaling to me. I've got a few Americans I want you to meet and you can explain to them why you feel some east European should have their job after coming here illegally and breaking our laws. I am dumbfounded as to what you find "Progressive" about that attitude.
Your arguments about borders and no one can be illegal are naive and taken right from talking points put out by LaRaza and other racist organizations that front for business.
And no one has the "right" to immigrate here. Never has. I'm proud to say though that we take more immigrants each year than the rest of the world combindeed practically. But "open borders" is not a Progressive attitude.
Illegal aliens create no jobs for anyone, anywhere, at any time. Their taking jobs from Americans is well documented.
I believe that you have not explored this problem, that you are just remembering what was said last year. I'd suggest you look into the subject before commenting like that. Its fairly easy to find the truth. Start by finding out who funds the folks advocating open borders and next which group the rhetoric is coming from. If you truly believe what yopu said you won't like the reality of the economics, but of course the opinion of favoring a dissolution of our nation is a personal one that is your right to hold.
I do not agree with this generalization about "illegal immigrants"...they are not "criminals" -- they MAY be under the "eyes of the law of the united states" as would be ANYONE that entered or worked in a country with its own "legalization" laws.
what the conception about the "criminality" of illegal immigrants is about FORGETS a much more fundamental problem - which is NOT limited to businesses prefering cheap labor IN the USA (american citizen or NOT) .
it is that the majority of these "illegal" aliens who "criminally" stay in the USA - abetted or encouraged by businesses that DO hire them or not -- COME to the USA - through great deprivations , many by FOOT hundreds of miles and weeks , many dying for it, only to be 'criminalized' in the USA but STILL willing to work very hard...>BECAUSE?
THEIR OWN LIVELIHOODS and means of living from their own lands were DESTROYED by -- in ONE word:
THE US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE behind the foreign policies of the USA in THOSE countries for generations!
for an american to look upon the :illegals as if they somehow only "TAKE" from america -- is the height of FORGETFULL, SELECTIVE HYPOCRISY just because americans are having problems "of our own" in jobs CAUSED by the VERY SAME SYSTEM such as their own economic system that
WENT AND PRACTICALLY INVADED south america and other weaker nations and FORCED their governments to DO AMERICA's "chamber of commerce" , IMF, State Department, Pentagon, etc. etc. etc.
BIDDING!
and americans are OFFENDED by the "criminal" illegal aliens APPEARING in america?
WHAT DID THEY EXPECT? as the PRICE of America's "prosperity" whose PRICE elsewhere is the DESTRUCTION of the livelihoods and national heritages of citizens of poorer countries FROM WHERE the "illegal criminal aliens" come? !!
do americans EVER examine the MORALITY and ETHICS of what THEIR own prosperity has BOUGHT elsewhere on the CHEAP?!!
as a famous american general said (either Smedley Butler or Omar Bradley) :
"THE TRUE PURPOSE OF THE US MILITARY IS TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFE FOR OUR CULTURAL ASSAULT AND EXPLOITATION BY OUR BUSINESSES.....OUR FOREIGN POLICIES ARE GEARED TOWARDS GATHERING AS MUCH OF THE WORLD'S RECOURSES UNTO OURSELVES AT THE EXPENSE OF WEAKER NATIONS....I WAS ITS CHIEF ENFORCER".
americans DO NOT HAVE THE MORAL AUTHORITY to be dismissive of "illegal aliens" WHATSOEVER!!
if anything -- if americans REALLY understood the history of how the dollar hegemony, the manipulations through the IMF for DECADEs, the cover and overt military expedictions to SUPPRESS other countries in their RIGHTS to defend enrich their own people with good leadership , using THEIR resources for THEIR welfare -- americans BY NOW , ESPECIALLY as the USA is exposed as OWING the world's "sovereign credit" funds the tune of over 55 TRILLION dollars to FLOAT its economy --
americans REALLY should be hanging their heads iN SHAME at being what a former CIA operative in south america , calling himself an "Economic hitman" , John Perkins, revealed:
"we are an empire...the largest the world has known...and we have GOTTEN AWAY with building this empire and our prosperity through manipulation, undermining their economies, assassinations and toppling uncooperative governments, fomenting insurrections, covert and overt military expeditions, blackmail, and PLAIN THEFT of the resources of other nations.....MY part was to undermine their economies to render them SUBJUGATED to OUR designs and then blame them for mismanagement...if these things failed...that's when we send in our military....that's what you are seeing now in iraq ....I WAS PART OF THAT PROJECT of Empire Building.".
the AMERICAN economy is and HAS been FLOATING its prosperity LARGELY on teh backs of weaker nations that -- with the USA financial and foreign policies FORCING them through manipulative global structures such as "pegging currencies and the pound to the dollar" after world war 2, removing the dollar FROM being REQUIRED to have corresponding GOLD reserves which the usa DOES NOT POSSESS according to its size --
actually OWES those countries behind the facades of "other countries owing" the USA.
IN REALITY - that is the case because it is the USA that has "gotten away" with being INDEBTED to those countries INCLUDING the weaker ones by FORCING THEM to PAY the USA for THEIR own subjugation BY the USA and ITS business empire!!
and this matter about real human beings - who are from those same coutnries is going to be a subject of "dismissiveness" by americans? because these "criminal illegal aliens" FOLLOW their STOMACHS once the USA had DENIED them their own livelihoods in their own countrysides and nations? do people have ANY SHAME AT ALL?
I said this next related story i posted elsewhere here but it's instructive:
I met and had a long chat many months ago with an old gentleman...very clear minded, clear eyes he did not even need glasses to read tons of newspapers about what's going on everywhere.....and related to me mindboggling stories from his childhood through all his years, and his opinion ad observations about events -- through his 104 YEARS of living!
he related how he and his brothers played in the streets in Italy as teenagers and how Fascism arose , and how THEY , EVEN THEN , had a clear understanding that this was related to the extreme forms of capitalism once they ARRIVE at their PREDICTABLE crises periods....and he saw World war ONE...and later became a nautival engineer that traveled all over the world.
and HIS opinion and judgment was THIS, especially concerning "illegal immigrants":
"we in europe, our nations went abroad to colonise other countries....but we only wanted to gather their resources and cheap labor to gain OUR prosperity -- INSTEAD of HELPING them in reality . so the result is -we DESTROYED their cultures and civilizations and left them desperate....we should not be surprised that they are finding themselves in our shores andcountries and we complain that we can not support everyone....but it is OUR OWN DOING that is the cause of it....the poorer countries have been DENIED their own abilities and right to become prosperous through their wealth and abilities,,,and instead of HELPING them, we EXPLOITED them...this is being repeated by the USA today...and this is why there are not many good leaders..and what is happening with the USA and its policies is repeating what the ancient Roman Empire did...and I am Roman..and it was wrong to do that to other people".
why i keep forgetting his name,,,but remember what THIS americanPoet said so movingly :
"WE AMERICANS.....WE CAREFULLY NURTURE AN ATTITUDE OF DETACHED INDIFFERENCE TO THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS......EVEN IF WE ARE THE CAUSE OF IT".
the answer to THAT is == because americans, if THEY really were confronted with the REALITY and TRUTH of how AMERICA has become the giant prosperous, powerful nation that it is -- will have to HANG THEIR HEADS IN SHAME at the PRICE that it was build upon!! at the expense of those because they were weaker!
there is NOTHING to be proud of about THAT, least of all , to look down upon "illegal criminal aliens" becuse they are seeking in desperation what americans themselves FIND they are also running AFTER when people are DENIED their DECENCY to live a well-meaning life !!
america is teh BIGGEST DEBTOR NATION on earth! and inMORE ways than just in MONEY! it has DEBT it can NOT POSSIBLY repay to other nations for DESTROYING them in its quest for "greatness and manifest destiny" and american's MYTHICAL "american dream".!
if anything, anyamerican that meets or gets to know a hardworking "illegal alien" already having passed through famines perhaps or watching the LOSS of their livelihoods at the behest of american big businesses upon their coerced governments since and especially decades ago - and STILL must go through the humiliation after long life-threatening travels and leaving their loved ones out of DESPERATION -- (wonder what american "family values' folks would say about THAT?) -- only to be treated as "criminals" in the self-glorifying "american justice system" -- and work in the shadows when they are only so WILLING to openly work their butts off and BE complete contributors to american society --
any american that meets people like that -- should be BOWING TO THEM -- to HONOR them and to ACKNOWLEDGE americans' OWN INDEBTEDNESS to those people's LOSING their own countries TO THE RAVAGING and RAPING of their countries BY the USA!
illegal aliens do NOT OWE america ANYTHING whatsoever. if anything, especiallly from south america that the USA has treated like its "backyard" since the Manifest Destiny nonsense of President Monroe -- it is AMERICA that OWES those countries AND their "illegal aliens" in america. those aliens are only coming and working in america to get a MERE INTEREST upon the DEBT OWED to them by the USA !!!
Well Teddy, that was a mouthful. I guess if you want to blame America for the failure of their own nations on us, what can I say. Its not true of course, but believe what you like. It is however partially true for Mexico because of NAFTA and what it did to their farmers. But the responsibility would have to be shared with the Mexican government. There are other instances of course, but in no case do we owe anyone a living.
Because there are hard times in other countries there is no right to come here and steal jobs from Americans. Sorry. Nor do they have the right to come here and have Ameruican citizens support them. Sorry. And this is exactly what illegal aliens are doing. Fact, not rhetoric.
Many of these folks are hard working, many are not. We owe them nothing. Americans are among the hardest working people in the world. Lets be clear, its not the fault of an illegal alien that gets a job here, its the fault of the business that hires them, the government entities that business owns that kotow to business and refuse to enforce the law and the folks that have bought in to big business's storyline and support or aid illegal immigrants.
Those are the people that have the blood of those that died getting here on their hands. They arte responsible for the abuse and rape of the women, the abuses in the work place which are egregious. Aiding and abbetting illegal immigration, hiring illegal aliens is the same as advocating slavery. It stinks.
The border is bad and its getting worse. Its amusing to see some here wring their hands about killings around the world and never mention the killings on the border.
Its time to stop lying about this problem, time to stop playing big business's game and put an end to this job theft from American citizens and exploitation of poor people that have no defense when they are here illegally.
I suppose in all of this, no one has heard of overpopulation??
Well, anyway, as the US economy tanks, illegal immigrants are beginning to return home, where I suspect most would have rather stay were it not for NAFTA.
So, yeah, Argentina-style worker co-ops, hopefully producing goods less aesthetically horrendous and toxic than vinyl windows.
licketyglick
Population is a very big problem, especially enviornmentallty. And another reason to reject illegal immigration with its large enviornmental impact.
This problem has many sides and you hasve touched two for sure.
overpopulation is not as much the culprit as MALDISTRIBUTION of wealth. THAT is the real problem. many economists and global population studies observe that while overpopulation CAN be a problem -- far larger is the way the global system of distribution of resources and wealth AND food is played...that there is ENOUGH food and resources to support populations, especially if LESS wasteful ways , led often by the western world in ITS hoarding of such resources, is established, which traditional and age-old populations have always practiced . it is the INTRUSION of the capitalist "endless growth" SYSTEM for PROFIT that actually disfigures the global system .
when agribusinesses for example control large tracts of land devoted to a limited, because "profitable" crop, for EXPORT, it removes FROM the larger population its traditional means of SELF SUSTAINING agriculture that is actually SLOWER in its consumption of resources which also, naturally, controls "population growth". but as soon as that large tract is denied from the larger population , and "hoarded" in the hands of a few for purposes of export ..not only is a selfsustaining industry for the domestic population removed..it LEAVES A POPULATION with NO means of survival..and in the contiguous continents of south and north america -- WHERE do the dispossessed GO? they go NORTH!
this happened with asian countries....for example, the Philippines was ONCE selfsustaining in agriculture, and was one of the largest exporters because of excess production to other southeast nations who, naturally, traded what the philippines needed and didn't have, while THEY got what the philippines had, which was crops, in excess after taking care of ITS domestic needs.
ENTER the WORLD BANK, and IMF -- prescribing "solutions" and "efficient distribution" -- and suppressed the programs for self-sustaining economy, "privatizing" , charging for 'services' monopolized by US controlled corporations buying up leases and rights to lands and rural banks, and VOILA -- a decade after that in the 1960's the philippines is now one of the BIGGEST and chronic IMPORTER of crops it ONCE was considered among the best producers of ! the ordinary people, become landless and without recourse because they are reduced to PEONAGE , "contract workers" in large plantations of what they ONCE collectively worked on or shared with their small landowners (who were also eaten up by the large corporations -- USUALLY USA corporations like DOLE) -- end up going abroad (if they could borrow or put together money for the expense) to become construction workers in places like the middle east where they are kept in horrible conditions, passports kept from them, unpaid --
BY SUBSIDIARIES OF HALLIBURTON and friends for america's continuing Empire building.
clever isn't it?
that's capitalism and globalization and "opening up domestic markets for FOREIGN CAPITAL infusions" for you.
teddy
You have some good points teddy, but as to the Phillapines, remember their problem came after we left. I'd even say because we left.
this hubris about illegal aliens "taking away jobs and benefits from americans" -- as if the VICTIMS of america's OWN foreign policies that come from those victimized countries to work in america are the ones responsible for "destroying america's economy" -- which STARTED the whole rigmarole to begin with by INTERFERING in those other countries in order tO "gather as much of the world;s resources unto ourselves" (american general Smedley butler) -- is reflected TODAY in teh way even OBAMA and the congress and pundits and "wise men" of washington and powerstructure and culture definers about IRAQIS:
"it is high time that iraqis take responsibility for THEMSELVES and START PAYING for THEIR own reconstruction">
AS IF AMERICA was NOT the THIEF and INVADER that ILLEGALLY and CRIMINALLY went IN THERE under FALSE PRETENSE because of Iraq's geopolitical strategic importance and its OCEAN OF BLACK GOLD on which america DEPENDED for all its generations of "prosperity" and war making power!
what a HYPOCRITICAL attitude! blaming the victim for one's own SINS of destruction and exploitation and outright theft of another country's resources or self-determination!