"Redundancies stir threat of labour unrest
By Hal Weitzman in Chicago
Published: January 9 2009 16:46 | Last updated: January 9 2009 16:46
Manuel Robles, an electricians’ union leader in south Chicago, says that rather than seeking work, some of his unemployed members are spending their days learning English.
“Many are looking but it’s really hard to find a job right now,” he says. “About 85 per cent of the workers are from Latin America, so quite a few are spending their time in the classroom improving their English.”
Mr Robles’s union drew international attention last month when it staged a sit-in at Republic Windows and Doors, a company that abruptly closed its plant in Goose Island, in central Chicago. The workers were protesting against the management’s failure to give them their statutory 60 days’ notice. The company said it had been forced to shut rapidly after Bank of America cut off its credit line.
The workers complained that Bank of America was receiving federal bail-out funds while their federally mandated legal rights were ignored. Their action drew broad political support, including from Barack Obama, president-elect, prompting a financial settlement in which each worker received a cheque for $6,000 (€4,400, £3,950).
As the US reels from the latest jobs data – non-farm payrolls showed more than half a million jobs were lost last month – the successful sit-in at Republic Windows could herald a rise in industrial unrest and civil action.( I AGREE )
“Republic Windows is the type of situation you get at the start of a downturn, when there are a lot of layoffs,” says Mike Mazzeo of the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University. “You are likely to see more of this in cases where there is a perception of unfair treatment or that the pain of the economic downturn is not being shared equally by the management and the workers.”( AS I KEEP SAYING. )
Although the Republic Windows case turned on the specific issue of federal bail-out money helping financial institutions rather than meeting obligations to workers, with all of the big US banks having received federal funds, it looks to have given unions a stick to beat companies with in the case of future bankruptcies.
Mr Robles’s group this week filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board against Richard Gillman, the majority owner of Republic Windows, complaining about his transferring machinery from the Chicago plant to a factory owned by his family in Iowa.
The workers are hoping that if they can secure the equipment’s return, their factory could re-open under new ownership. Mr Gillman said he could not comment on the case.
“Union activism is going to get stepped up,” predicts Mr Robles. “We want to bring pressure on the government not to send money to other countries, to keep it here, help the economy grow and create jobs in the US.”( I EXPECT MORE OF THIS. )
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