Thursday, December 11, 2008

It's Over: Chicago Sit-Down Strike, Final Chapter

By Manifesto Joe

They didn't get what they should have -- that would have been their discarded jobs back. But workers at Chicago's Republic Windows & Doors factory have voted to end their sit-in after winning a partial victory. A $1.75 million deal will give them their legal severance and accrued vacation pay.

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., helped broker the deal, according to The Associated Press report. For the workers, Gutierrez said, it works out to about $7,000 each.

Here's the news link to this development.

They shoulda done better. But there are times when you gotta take what you can get.

I guess this won't be like the Flint sit-down strike -- but maybe it's a start.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

4 comments:

Marc McDonald said...

Let's put this $1.75 million deal into perspective.

Kenneth Lewis, the CEO of Bank of America, has raked in $165 million over the past five years.

And for what?

For managing his company so poorly that it had to be bailed out with $25 billion of our tax dollars?

Oh, and over the past year, Bank of America's share price has plunged from around 54 to 16.

Can one of this blog's "capitalist" GOP-supporting readers please explain to me why Lewis has deserved such an incredible fortune in compensation?

Or why my tax dollars are being stolen from me to feed the greedy pigs at this company?

Anonymous said...

You make a good point. How great a victory can it be to end up where, legally, you should have been to begin with, and still lose your job?

Thanks for the link.

Manifesto Joe said...

Hi, guys:

Sadly, it's two steps back and then one step forward. But I think it was Lewis Carroll, through his characters in "Alice in Wonderland," who made the point that one sometimes has to run as fast as one can in order to stay in the same place. The Republic workers decided to take the raw deal with the devil they know rather than hold out and risk a worse deal with the devil they don't know.

opit said...

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