Chicago Republic Windows and Doors Strike

I lay in my bed, sick as a dog from a "gastrointestinal virus" (which means the doctors couldn't name what was really wrong with me, and I am vomiting so hard it comes out of my nose...) but CNN has some good news for me...



So the people employed at this Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago were given three days notice that they were out of work, and that it wasn't a layoff, it was permanent. The Union that the employees had joined for protection mobilized into action...

Basically, they couldn't go on strike--they were out of work anyway!! So, they occupied the factory in shifts, 250 former employees, and vowed not to move until they got severance and vacation pay. A group outside the factory (that is, not the ones inside sitting in) protested outside, spreading leaflets and waving signs, letting the public know just how they were being treated.

So, first off....


I am elated that the workers here are taking matters into their own hands. Too many people are happy to just be a cog in a machine. They either don't care about their rights, or are too uninformed to even know that they HAVE any, and that's a sad but true case in many workplaces.

WELL DONE to the workers and the local Union Heads--you managed to not get tangled in all of the usual bullshit that can make Labor Unions fail (Decay from within, position-power-plays, etc.) and you did what needed to be done, you protected the veigns and arteries of this country, the workers. And you did it well.

NOW--

Why the hell were the workers not given the 60-day notice that any other company would have given them? What if they hadn't been unionized? What if the people had not taken that precaution, and were thus left without any protection from this treatment?? These people's lives would've been in shambles as a result of this fucking three day notice..... It actually makes me physically angry to think of the repercussions that those families would have had to endure after this three-day notice.

In closing, it's a WIN for the unions, and a WIN for the PROLETARIAT that keeps our country chugging along, the steel worker, the fiber-glass cutter, the carpenter, those people who get their hands dirty and provide us with so many of the goods we take for granted. More people need to fight for them, and when big corporations try to pull this garbage again, we need to take note, and fight with them for their rates.





And for the record, Blagojevich is a moron................






Wrench