Kari Lydersen - Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover and What It Says About the Economic Crisis

UE union Local 1110 President Armando Robles addresses the media about negotiations with Bank of America and Republic Windows & Doors on the fourth day of the sit-in at the factory. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

In early December 2008, headlines around the world focused on the workers of the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago, Illinois. There, 250 workers had been laid off after the abrupt shutdown of their factory. The closing wasnt unusualit came in the midst of the largest economic collapse since the Great Depression, at a moment when every day brought news of more job losses. Just days before the closing, the U.S. Labor Department announced more than a half million job cuts.

But the companys workers did something unusual.

Represented by the UE labor union, they occupied the factory, located on Goose Island in the Chicago River, and refused to leave until they were paid for accrued vacation time and 60 days of federally mandated severance.

Congressmen, local politicians and President-Elect Barack Obama spoke out in support of the workers. Soon-to-be-impeached Governor Rod Blagojevich even made his last public appearance at the factory before being arrested on massive corruption charges.

Republic owner Richard Gillman blamed Bank of America for the closing, saying the bank had cut off credit to the company. The truth proved to be more complicated, but blaming the bank struck a chord with Americans fed up with corporate greed and skeptical of the $700 billion federal bank bailout, which members of Congress and the sitting administration had promised would unfreeze the credit markets. Bank of America had received $25 billion in bailout funds two months before Republic closed; it would receive another $20 billion soon after. You got bailed out, we got sold out! became a rallying cry for people around the country protesting in support of the Republic workers and against the bank.

The workers story captured the imagination and empathy of a nation caught in an escalating economic crisis. People who had felt secure in their jobs and firmly ensconced in the middle class were suddenly finding themselves out of work or terrified of becoming so. And so, many eyes turned to the tactics being used at Republic. According to Reverend Jesse Jackson, the takeover represented the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence.

In Republics case, the workers tactics were successful. Pressure was applied to Americas largest financial institutionsBank of America and JPMorgan Chaseand a settlement was eventually reached with the workers. Then there was another significant victory, as the plan was reopened and framed as a symbol of the promise of green jobs.

Many union organizers, labor experts and citizens heralded the Republic victories as potential harbingers of a revitalized and reinvigorated labor movement in the United States. Those involved pointed out that far from being a spontaneous act, the occupation was the result of finely tuned and tireless organizing and strategizing, by an independent union that had forged a path separate from most organized labor and with a workforce largely comprised of Latino immigrants. The Republic story thus entwined some of the most significant questions facing the U.S. economy: the evolving situation of organized labor; the increasing role of immigrants in the economy; the potential impact of the bank bailouts; as well as a significant connection to the economic stimulus package passed in February 2009.

If any lasting impact is to come from the Republic victory, workers and supporters say, their story will have to be kept alive. This book offers a deeper look into the events and underlying forces leading up to, during and after the revolt on Goose Island.

David Schalliol

Turn out all the lights right now, a supervisor at Republic Windows & Doors told Armando Robles as he was wrapping up the second shift at the factory on Goose Island, a small hive of industry sitting in the middle of the Chicago River. It was about 10 p.m. on November 5, 2008. Robles thought the order strange, as other employees were still finishing up. Everyone has to leave right now, the supervisor said. For a while Robles and other workers had been suspicious about the health of the company and strange occurrences at the factory. They knew business had been bad for the past two years. The housing crash meant not many people were in the market for new windows and doors, neither Republics higher-end ornate grooved, wood-framed glass panes nor their utilitarian vinyl- and aluminum-framed windows. At monthly town hall meetings that the company had started holding over the past year, managers were constantly bemoaning how much money they were losing. And the workforce had been nearly cut in half in the past few years, from about 500 to 250. Something seemed to be up, and Robles felt sure it wasnt good.