Buffalo Solidarity Demonstration with UE Local 1110

Today there was a rally in front of the downtown Bank of America in solidarity with the workers of UE Local 1110, who are occupying their factory in protest of previously announced layoffs. The protest was attended by members of the Western New York Peace Center, Buffalo State Students for Peace, the International Action Center, and Buffalo Class Action. It was one event in a series of nationwide solidarity demonstrations outside of Bank of the Americas. Here are a few pictures from the event.

Victory to the Workers Occupying Republic Windows and Doors

“My conception of the strike of the future is not to strike and go out and starve, but to strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production.”

-Lucy Parsons

On December 5^th, workers at the Republic Windows and Doors factory – members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110 – were told by owners that the plant would be closing. In the midst of a global economic crisis, this isn’t an unfamiliar story. Despite the billions of dollars in bailout money that Bank of America had received it told Republic owners that they wouldn’t be giving them the loan needed to pay the 75 days severance pay legally required.

It’s at this point that the story departs from the familiar. Rather than accept the factory closure and enter what would undoubtedly be a prolonged legal battle for back wages, workers in UE 1110 defiantly began a sit-down strike, occupying the factory. Throughout the world people began to take notice as workers in the United States began to militantly and collectively resist the side-effects of the economic crisis, using tactics that haven’t been seen in the US labor movement in decades. Statements of solidarity from social movements and political organizations throughout the world are flooding into the Chicago factory that has now been constantly occupied for over five days.

We in the American working class have to recognize the urgency of these moments. This factory occupation has become the first collective defiant act to fight the layoffs and cutbacks that we are facing as the economic hard times get shifted onto the same people that always suffer when the economy contracts. A victory at this plant could serve as the inspirations to workers facing layoffs throughout the country. With this capacity to set the tone for the course of this recession, it is essential that these workers win their demands. And that will only happen with the active solidarity of other working people around the world.

However, to truly recognize the importance of this moment, we need to begin to think beyond it. We need to be there to spread the story of the Republic Windows and Doors workers and their courage. The inspiration granted to us by UE 1110 needs to be used to make this kind of militant resistance to layoffs and cutbacks the standard. Imagine the Big 3 auto companies facing similar sit-down strikes to those they faced in the 1930’s. Imagine that during one of those factory occupations, the workers decide to continue producing.

It’s amazing to me that only one year after returning from Argentina, I am already writing about a worker-occupied factory in the United States. What’s more amazing is how similar this story sounds to those told to me by workers at FaSinPat and other recuperated businesses. Just as in Chicago, workers there said that they were occupying the factory to guard against the selling of the machinery and products held within. They were watching this property because it was their only assurance that they would eventually get what was owed. In many cases, workers decided that rather than wait to salvage the left over products to help make their severance pay that they no longer wanted to lose their jobs in the first place. Instead, they decided that the factory itself was acceptable compensation for their lost wages and began to self-manage the factories and resume production.

They had taken the first steps toward a truly liberated society where bosses and exploitation are replaced with community and cooperation. Let’s begin to organize toward that same world. It starts with ensuring a victory at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, Illinois.